The Boeing Company
Chopped fiber additive manufacturing void detection

Abstract:

According to various examples, techniques for detecting an off specification void in an item produced by an additive manufacturing process are presented. The techniques can utilize a system that includes cameras positioned to capture images of deposition of material in an additive manufacturing receptacle from multiple angles. The system can include at least one hardware electronic feature detector hard coded to detect features of elements of the material in image data derived from images. The system can further includes at least one electronic processor configured to perform a method of receiving feature data from the at least one hardware electronic feature detector, generating an electronic three-dimensional representation of the material in the additive manufacturing receptacle from the feature data, determining from the electronic three-dimensional representation of the material in the additive manufacturing receptacle that an off specification void exists, and providing an alert.