Towards Real-Time Certification with in Situ Inspection

Certification of additive manufacturing (AM) components is crucial to promote the wide spread adoption of the technology. As the industry moves from prototyping only applications to end-use part production, including spares and replacement parts, certification holds the utmost importance. In this talk, Dr. Niall O'Dowd reviews the importance of understanding the active phenomena present during the printing process and shares how his work at Phase3D is contributing to real-time certification. To print high criticality, a heightened scrutiny integrated into the process must be documented, digitalized, recorded, and audited, unlike for prototyping days of old. This talk postulates that to certify a part, one must understand the relationship between the build process and the final part properties. Niall goes on to share some of the results Phase3D has gathered towards achieving part certification for NASA, the US Air Force, and others.