Low Cost Polymer Extrusion Real Time Defect Detection and In Situ Process Control

Fused-filament fabrication (FFF)nbsp;has received considerable investment from the aerospace industry because itnbsp;offersnbsp;the enticingnbsp;capabilitynbsp;ofnbsp;on-demand fabrication ofnbsp;complex spare parts,nbsp;whilenbsp;simultaneouslynbsp;expanding the engineering design spacenbsp;andnbsp;minimizing costs for low-volume part production.nbsp; This is particularly important to the aerospace industrynbsp;where storage space for parts is limited,nbsp;part count is low,nbsp;and often times getting parts on location (i.e. space, the moon, Mars) is very expensive.nbsp; NASA hasnbsp;been a major leader in implementing additive manufacturing (AM)nbsp;innbsp;currentnbsp;systems, butnbsp;adoption is still slow becausenbsp;of post-process inspection requirements.nbsp;nbsp;If parts are to be made on-site in non-terrestrial environments post-process inspection may not be available, sonbsp;closed-loop control of FFF is necessary.nbsp; Consequently, a significant opportunity existsnbsp;to develop tools that bridge the quality control gap between currentnbsp;FFFnbsp;technologynbsp;and fully-closed-loopnbsp;systems.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;