[MUSIC] Welcome to DMD Tech Talk. As your moderator, I will take you into companies where we will have conversations with industry partners who share our manufacturing passion. More specifically, they share our passion for how digital manufacturing and design is transforming the industry. We are extremely fortunate to be able to share some first hand experiences with you. Today's focus is on metrology, defined by the national institute of standard and technology, or NIST, as as the signs of measurement. We will visit Buffalo Manufacturing Works in Western New York. Buffalo Manufacturing Works helps innovation-driven organizations excel by partnering with their internal manufacturing, engineering, and research and development teams to grow, compete and deliver better products. Let's go inside and hear from our industry partner about advanced technologies and metrology. [MUSIC] >> Additive manufacturing is an exciting new paradigm but it also gives us new exciting and challenging inspection requirements. So traditionally on machining and finishing we know what to expect, we know that if we pass a mill across the surface that the surface roughness should be consistent in that area. And our standards have been built around these assumptions. Now in the world of AM we can not make those and that forces us to be much more dynamic and diverse in how we inspect our parts. So before when we could take a single one dimensional scan or a linear scan across the part, we're required to look broader, take full three-dimensional images of our part to understand where the process parameters inspect for the full part and how different features on the surface may affect the process as it goes. [MUSIC] The field of metrology has been for a long time stuck in tactile methods, both tactile roughness gauges, which scan a sharp tip across a surface, as well as CMM. So large coordinate measurement machines, which scan balls over a surface. These are still often used, but they come with all these assumptions built in. So we're seeing optical techniques come in in a much wider sense now that that the application space of AM and new fast machining techniques required. The exciting part to come is going to be closing the manufacturing loop. So taking the data we see with our optical inspection techniques that enable us to measure quantities much farther than SBC. So looking at 100% of the parts, analyzing the data, and using that to close the feedback loop to educate the process and increase the efficiency of your manufacturing cycle. That loop closing, I see is the next big move in metrology. In our lab at Buffalo Manufacturing Works, we have a range of different pieces of equipment. On my left, this is a Brooker Low-Coherence Optical Interferometer. This system images a surface in 3D so when it's operating, you see a cloud of light just like you would out of a microscope and you're imaging that full cloud of light simultaneously. So you're taking a 2D image and then it uses a scan mirror and the wave nature of light to reconstruct a 3D image. This can be done incredibly accurately down to one nano meter resolution. The power of this technique is not just the resolution but your ability to take full 3D information on a part. We have a multi-center integrated package with custom integrated motion control. So this system is designed to answer a customers need for flexibility, running in a 50 part family. It allows the customer to get both form measurements. So the dimensions and the DDT measurements down to ten micro-inch accuracy. And also allows roughness measurement of a part. And finally it allows all that data that you take to be simplified and tell you if the part is good or bad with a relatively fast cycle time, in the minutes range. [MUSIC] The optical techniques require optical access, so if you can't See it you can't measure it. Combining motion, be it robotic, be it precision stages, or be it conveyor belts into the process allows you to both use what you have already in your process using the robots, the conveyors you have to take measurement Instead of requiring you to take your parts off line to measure them on a CMM. And also allow you to get the optical access you need to take the data. So it's very much a win win for both the inspection of the equipment and getting to something like 100% in line inspection.
