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Applications of Optical Sensors in Additive Manufacturing

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Additive Manufacturing Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2024) | Viewed by 1341

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33203 Asturias, Spain
Interests: additive manufacturing; sensors metrology; on-machine measurement

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Construction and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33203 Asturias, Spain
Interests: manufacturing process mechanics; additive manufacturing; CAD; design engineering; machining; mechanical processes; CNC machining; product design and development; engineering drawing; product development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Despite the potential benefits inherent in Additive Manufacturing (AM), technologies related to this concept have not yet met the expected level of adoption largely due to persisting concerns related to the quality of the produced components.

Addressing these issues would require a comprehensive assessment of the manufacturing process and meticulous process control. In this context, the utilization of optical sensors distinguishes itself by its ability to swiftly and non-intrusively collect multifaceted data. Furthermore, integrating these sensors into existing AM machines is relatively straightforward, and they can operate effectively across a wide array of environments.

For this Special Issue of Applied Sciences, "Applications of Optical Sensors in Additive Manufacturing", we would like to send an open invitation to the academic and scientific community to submit scholarly contributions pertaining to the integration and application of optical sensors within the additive manufacturing process. These contributions can be related to the following:

  • The improvement of product quality;
  • The monitoring of the manufacturing process;
  • The integration of optical sensors into AM machines for real‑time or in situ measurements;
  • The analysis or processing of data collected from these sensors in the context of AM components or machines.

Dr. Pablo Zapico
Dr. David Blanco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • dimensional and/or geometric assessment of the layers and/or the part
  • residual stress detection
  • surface defect detection
  • sub-surface defect detection
  • process monitoring (consistency during extrusion, bed of particles unevenness, environment, etc.)
  • raw material or non-used material analysis
  • feedstock delivery system monitoring
  • data handling and processing (layer contour detection, deep learning, etc.)
  • in situ or in-process optical sensor integration

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 7642 KiB  
Article
Layer Contour Geometric Characterization in MEX/P through CIS-Based Adaptive Edge Detection
by Alejandro Fernández, David Blanco, Braulio J. Álvarez, Pedro Fernández, Pablo Zapico and Gonzalo Valiño
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(14), 6163; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14146163 - 15 Jul 2024
Viewed by 916
Abstract
The industrial adoption of material extrusion of polymers (MEX/P) is hindered by the geometric quality of manufactured parts. Contact image sensors (CISs), commonly used in flatbed scanners, have been proposed as a suitable technology for layer-wise characterization of contour deviations, paving the way [...] Read more.
The industrial adoption of material extrusion of polymers (MEX/P) is hindered by the geometric quality of manufactured parts. Contact image sensors (CISs), commonly used in flatbed scanners, have been proposed as a suitable technology for layer-wise characterization of contour deviations, paving the way for the application of corrective measures. Nevertheless, despite the high resolution of CIS digital images, the accurate characterization of layer contours in MEX/P is affected by contrast patterns between the layer and the background. Conventional edge-recognition algorithms struggle to comprehensively characterize layer contours, thereby diminishing the reliability of deviation measurements. In this work, we introduce a novel approach to precisely locate contour points in the context of MEX/P based on evaluating the similarity between the grayscale pattern near a particular tentative contour point and a previously defined gradient reference pattern. Initially, contrast patterns corresponding to various contour orientations and layer-to-background distances are captured. Subsequently, contour points are identified and located in the images, with coordinate measuring machine (CMM) verification serving as a ground truth. This information is then utilized by an adaptive edge-detection algorithm (AEDA) designed to identify boundaries in manufactured layers. The proposed method has been evaluated on test targets produced through MEX/P. The results indicate that the average deviation of point position compared to that achievable with a CMM in a metrology laboratory ranges from 8.02 µm to 13.11 µm within the experimental limits. This is a substantial improvement in the reliability of contour reconstruction when compared to previous research, and it could be crucial for implementing routines for the automated detection and correction of geometric deviations in AM parts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Optical Sensors in Additive Manufacturing)
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