Building Blocks for Digitally Integrated Process Chains in PBF-Based Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

As applications of Additive Manufacturing (AM) extend from rapid prototyping into series production, new challenges of digital information integration arise. In order to obtain transparency of overall costs and part quality, the relevant information of each process step needs to be gathered from different sources and combined in a meaningful way. Thus, a digitally integrated process chain can provide added value for manufacturers and their clients. This paper proposes building blocks for digitally integrated process chains in the context of powder bed fusion (PBF) based AM to form a basis for transparency of cost and quality. Solving requirements for the end-to-end digital chain leads into challenges of acquiring, storing, processing and routing information. Related technologies comprise domain-specific software, enterprise integration patterns, database and semantic technologies. The mapping of these enablers onto the AM chain leads to a target architecture that forms the fundament for future investigations.