Metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) are some of the most popular AM processes in the industry. LPBF does however still face some challenges to its wider adoption in the industry, primarily related to the process and material variability caused by inadequate controls and black box build preparation software and machine controllers. Vendor and OEM software and control system lock-in has led to reduced process understanding and limited part and material quality control, which negatively affects customer and industrial confidence in this technology. This is hindering process and part repeatability and reproducibility and ultimately hindering the effective and efficient qualification of these processes.
Our research and standardization efforts under ISO/TC 184 are addressing these challenges through the use of model-based manufacturing definitions, formalized as ISO/CD 10303-238 for STEP-NC for powder bed fusion. This presentation will review the latest updates on this effort and demonstrate the implementation of this standard for testing purposes. This demonstration shows how build files are generated, laser toolpaths are parametrically populated, and how technical data packages can be exported for metal AM parts. The test implementation allows for importing CAD designs in STEP format, segmenting the design into AM-specific features, slicing and discretizing these features into processing regions, and then populating these regions with toolpaths or scan strategies that command the AM machine controller. Repeatability and reproducibility are assessed by testing the standard model on two different software implementations and then producing the generated control files on two different powder bed fusion machines. This provides users with a platform and vendor neutral model for parametrically discretizing designs and their associated manufacturing process controls from 3D down to their most basic 1D forms.
Learning Objectives:
Parametrically generate build files and laser toolpaths from CAD designs in a repeatable and reproducible manner.
Discretize and segment CAD design features into powder bed fusion specific manufacturing features with associated process controls.
Generate transferable build files and process controls agnostic of machine or software platforms.
