Additive Manufacturing Life Estimation Using Batch Test Pieces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Additive manufacturing techniques face challenges in ensuring quality consistency due to sensitivity to various variables, making it difficult to guarantee the quality and operational life of components, especially in critical applications like gas turbines, where conventional verification methods require extensive testing and do not fully quantify the impact of build parameters on mechanical properties.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the manufacturing of components in batches with test pieces and production components using the same material composition and build parameters, determining characteristic mechanical properties of the test pieces to assess the life-defining quantity of production components, and associating them with indicators for quality assurance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional verification techniques are used to guarantee quality of additive manufactured components, then quality certainty is improved, but the number of components requiring extensive testing increases, making manufacture commercially less attractive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by manufacturing test pieces alongside production components in the same additive manufacturing batch, so that material properties are determined before final component certification is needed. This advance testing of representative samples enables life estimation and quality verification without requiring extensive testing of every production component, thus maintaining reliability while improving manufacturing efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses test pieces that are manufactured as copies of production components using identical additive manufacturing processes, materials, and parameters. These test pieces serve as representative samples that capture the same material characteristics and build variable effects as the production components, allowing quality verification through testing the copies rather than the actual service components
2Manufacturing precision
If the impact of all build parameters on mechanical properties is fully quantified, then quality consistency is improved, but the complexity of process control and measurement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by systematically measuring the actual build parameters during additive manufacturing and using these measurements to adjust and control subsequent builds. The test piece results feed back into the process to refine understanding of parameter impacts, enabling quality consistency without requiring complex real-time control of every parameter, as the feedback loop progressively optimizes the process
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by systematically varying build parameters across different test pieces manufactured in the same batch, and measuring the resulting mechanical property variations. This experimental approach quantifies the impact of each parameter on material properties, enabling quality consistency through understood parameter effects rather than complex active control mechanisms
3Ease of manufacture
If test pieces are manufactured separately from production components, then testing is simplified, but the representativeness of test results to actual components decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the manufacturing of test pieces and production components by producing them together in the same additive manufacturing batch using identical materials, processes, and build parameters. This combination ensures that test pieces are representative of actual components while maintaining the simplicity of the additive manufacturing process, as both types of parts are created simultaneously without requiring separate manufacturing operations
Data Source
AI summary
A method of determining a life defining quantity of a production component manufactured by an additive manufacturing process. The method includes the step of defining a plurality of components to be manufactured by an additive manufacturing technique. The plurality of components has a first test piece and a first production component. The method further includes manufacturing the components in the same manufacturing batch using an additive manufacturing process and with nominally the same material composition and build parameters. A characteristic mechanical property of the first test piece is then determined. The method further includes determining a value of a life defining quantity of the first production component as a function of the first test piece characteristic mechanical property. The first production component and first test piece are then provided with indicators which associate the first production component with the determined life defining quantity.