Manufacturing Data Structure for Trusted 3D-Printed Quality Records
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Solution Overview
Problem
Additive manufacturing methods, such as 3D-printing, face challenges in ensuring consistent product quality due to minor process deviations, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs in testing and sorting, particularly in Industry 4.0 applications where reliable planning of service intervals is crucial.
Innovation Solution
A data structure product that contains manufacturing data from additive processes, protected against manipulation, using a key-keyhole principle and smart contracts to interact with manufacturing devices, ensuring data integrity and enabling automatic reactions to conditions, including sensor data acquisition and cryptographic checksums for security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If additive manufacturing is used to enable flexible production and quick switching between products, then adaptability and productivity are improved, but manufacturing precision and product quality consistency deteriorate due to minor process deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by recording manufacturing parameters and process data during the additive manufacturing process, creating a digital twin before the product is fully produced. This allows for pre-identification of potential quality issues and enables corrective actions to be taken during manufacturing, thereby maintaining precision while preserving the flexibility of additive manufacturing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms by continuously monitoring manufacturing parameters during the additive manufacturing process and comparing them against target values. Deviations are detected and can trigger automatic adjustments or alerts, ensuring quality consistency is maintained even when switching between different products rapidly.
2Reliability
If quality standards are enforced to ensure product reliability, then product quality is improved, but testing time and manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs quality verification in advance by recording and analyzing manufacturing parameters during production. The digital twin created during manufacturing contains all necessary quality data, allowing virtual inspection before physical testing. This preliminary quality assessment reduces the need for extensive post-manufacturing testing, thereby maintaining reliability while reducing testing time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a digital copy (digital twin) of the manufacturing process and product data. This digital replica can be inspected, analyzed, and verified without requiring physical testing of the actual product. The digital twin contains all manufacturing parameters, sensor data, and process information, enabling comprehensive quality verification in the virtual domain, thus reducing physical testing requirements.
3Manufacturing precision
If comprehensive quality testing is performed to meet production standards, then manufacturing precision is improved, but productivity and manufacturing efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital twin that serves as a virtual replica of the manufacturing process and product. This digital copy contains all quality-relevant data and can be inspected without interrupting the physical manufacturing process. Comprehensive quality testing is performed on the digital twin rather than requiring repeated physical inspections, thereby maintaining manufacturing precision while preserving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces physical quality testing mechanisms with digital analysis of recorded manufacturing data. Instead of performing mechanical measurements and physical inspections after manufacturing, the system uses digital processing of sensor data and manufacturing parameters to verify quality. This substitution eliminates time-consuming physical testing steps while maintaining or even improving detection precision through advanced data analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A data structure product containing information with regard to the manufacturing of a product wherein the data structure product contains manufacturing data of the manufacturing process of the specific product, wherein the data structure product is protected against manipulation. A kit of a product and its data structure product, a manufacturing device providing at least a part of the data structure product, and a method to manufacture a product, wherein a corresponding data structure product is created is provided.