An optical-based defect detection and visualisation system for fused filament fabrication process

Abstract

This research proposes an innovative way of detecting and addressing manufacturing defects for Fused Filament Fabrication. The proposed system scans the deposited material width value multiple times per second during the printing process with minimum interruption. The scanned data are indexed according to the G-code points arrangement, which contains the width values of the deposited material and all associated printing parameters. The scanned data are then reconstrued and visualised into a 3D object in a developed defects detector software for manual inspection. In addition, the data are analysed against a library containing conditions for each defect type for identification and quality improvement suggestions. This defect library is expandable by adding more defect conditions. In this paper, the detection accuracy is evaluated and the conditions of inappropriate retraction and inappropriate extrusion ratio is imported into the library for a system demonstration.