1,721,343 research outputs found
Precision Metal Additive Manufacturing
No full textAdditive manufacturing (AM) is a fast-growing sector with the ability to evoke a revolution in manufacturing due to its almost unlimited design freedom and its capability to produce personalised parts locally and with efficient material use. AM companies, however, still face technological challenges such as limited precision due to shrinkage, built-in stresses and limited process stability and robustness. Moreover, often post-processing is needed due to high roughness and remaining porosity. Qualified, trained personnel are also in short supply.
In recent years, there have been dramatic improvements in AM design methods, process control, post-processing, material properties and material range. However, if AM is going to gain a significant market share, it must be developed into a true precision manufacturing method. The production of precision parts relies on three principles:
Production is robust (i.e. all sensitive parameters can be controlled).
Production is predictable (for example, the shrinkage that occurs is acceptable because it can be predicted and compensated in the design).
Parts are measurable (as without metrology, accuracy, repeatability and quality assurance cannot be known).
AM of metals is inherently a high-energy process with many sensitive and inter-related process parameters, making it susceptible to thermal distortions, defects and process drift. The complete modelling of these processes is beyond current computational power, and novel methods are needed to practicably predict performance and inform design. In addition, metal AM produces highly textured surfaces and complex surface features that stretch the limits of contemporary metrology. With so many factors to consider, there is a significant shortage of background material on how to inject precision into AM processes. Shortage in such material is an important barrier for a wider uptake of advanced manufacturing technologies, and a comprehensive book is thus needed.
This book aims to inform the reader how to improve the precision of metal AM processes by tackling the three principles of robustness, predictability and metrology, and by developing computer-aided engineering methods that empower rather than limit AM design
Dimensional Metrology
No full textThis book provides a collection of these principles in a single source. Each topic is presented at a level suitable for both undergraduate students and precision engineers in the field.status: Publishe
Texture-based segmentation with Gabor filters, wavelet and pyramid decompositions for extracting individual surface features from areal surface topography maps
No full textAreal topography segmentation plays a fundamental role in those surface metrology applications concerned with the characterisation of individual topography features. Typical scenarios include the dimensional inspection and verification of micro-structured surface features, and the identification and characterisation of localised defects and other random singularities. While morphological segmentation into hills or dales is the only partitioning operation currently endorsed by the ISO specification standards on surface texture metrology, many other approaches are possible, in particular adapted from the literature on digital image segmentation. In this work an original segmentation approach is introduced and discussed, where topography partitioning is driven by information collected through the application of texture characterisation transforms popular in digital image processing. Gabor filters, wavelets and pyramid decompositions are investigated and applied to a selected set of test cases. The behaviour, performance and limitations of the proposed approach are discussed from the viewpoint of the identification and extraction of individual surface topography features
Industrial X-ray computed tomography
No full textThis book covers all aspects of industrial X-Ray computed tomography (XCT) including history, basics, different instrument architectures, hardware and software, error sources, traceability and calibration, and applications. The book is intended for users and developers of XCT instrumentation and software in both industry and academia, being also suitable for postgraduate students
Towards geometrical calibration of x-ray computed tomography systems - A review
Full text linkIndustrial x-ray computed tomography (XCT) is seen as a potentially effective tool for the industrial inspection of complex parts. In particular, XCT is an attractive solution for the measurement of internal geometries, which are inaccessible by conventional coordinate measuring systems. While the technology is available and the benefits are recognized, methods to establish the measurement assurance of XCT systems are lacking. More specifically, the assessment of measurement uncertainty and the subsequent establishment of measurement traceability is a largely unknown process. This paper is a review of research that contributes to the development of a geometrical calibration procedure for XCT systems. A brief introduction to the geometry of cone-beam tomography systems is given, after which the geometrical influence factors are outlined. Mathematical measurement models play a significant role in understanding how geometrical offsets and misalignments contribute to error in measurements; therefore, the application of mathematical models in simulating geometrical errors is discussed and the corresponding literature is presented. Then, the various methods that have been developed to measure certain geometrical errors are reviewed. The findings from this review are discussed and suggestions are provided for future work towards the development of a comprehensive and practical geometrical calibration procedure
Noise evaluation of a point autofocus surface topography measuring instrument
Full text linkIn this work, the measurement noise of a point autofocus surface topography measuring instrument is evaluated, as the first step towards establishing a route to traceability for this type of instrument. The evaluation is based on the determination of the metrological characteristics for noise as outlined in draft ISO specification standards by using a calibrated optical flat. The static noise and repeatability of the autofocus sensor are evaluated. The influence of environmental disturbances on the measured surface topography and the built-in software to compensate for such influences are also investigated. The instrument was found to have a measurement noise of approximately 2 nm or, when expressed with the measurement bandwidth, 0.4 nm/√Hz for a single-point measurement
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