Voice-activated 3D printing is amazing Renishaw's new smart software

British engineering firm and metal 3D printer maker Renishaw has released new software and hardware kits designed to improve the quality of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 3D printing through acoustic measurements.

The new software is called InfiniAM Sonic. This acoustic process monitoring software enables engineers to use sensors to detect acoustic events in 3D printing bins, which can provide useful information about the manufacturing quality of 3D printed parts. Renishaw's new software is designed to complement its existing InfiniAM additive manufacturing monitoring tool suite. As a factory-installed option, the InfiniAM Sonic software package has been integrated into Renishaw's RenAM 500Q 3D printer.



The InfiniAM Sonic solution includes four acoustic energy sensors that detect vibrations inside the building. The sensor collects sound waves from these tiny vibrations, so they can be monitored, viewed, and analyzed in InfiniAM Sonic software.

When four high-frequency sensors are placed at different locations in the 3D printing construction room, there will be time differences when detecting vibration due to sound propagation. Using this information and relying on software algorithm analysis, the location of the noise on the 3D printed construction board can be triangulated, providing a reliable source for the location and intensity of the noise. The data can also be combined with other information to graphically show the parts and the condition at the time of manufacture.

The InfiniAM Sonic software package, installed on the Renishaw four-laser LPBF 3D printer RenAM 500Q system, helps users to identify defects in additive manufacturing early to avoid overall failures.

The InfiniAM Sonic software package can be combined with other Renishaw 3D printing software, including for use with InfiniAM Central and InfiniAM Spectral process monitoring software solutions. InfiniAM Spectral, released last year, provides real-time spectral monitoring technology that enables manufacturers to collect fusion data for traceable production and process optimization. And InfiniAM Central software provides users with remote access to system sensors and 3D printed construction information.

Controllability of the 3D printing process is increasingly valued by customers and brands. Manufacturers and service providers need to know the details of the entire process of 3D printing in order to judge the quality and quality of parts produced by additive manufacturing, which is very helpful to improve the yield and reduce the workload of quality inspection before leaving the factory.