An Information Model with Voxelated Data from Computer Aided Systems and the Additive Manufacturing Workflow

Abstract

This paper discusses diverse data management approaches and proposes a comprehensive information model that is built from voxelated data from across the Additive Manufacturing and Computer Aided (AM – CAx) platforms workflow. The information model is developed using discretisation and data management techniques to provide a robust method of managing and structuring the product / process data throughout the AM – CAx domain. The result is a voxelated representation of the design, manufacturing, in-situ process data and quality control stages of an AM build within a single Hierarchical Data Format (HDF5) file. Demo files were developed for two different AM processes during this work. With further research and by applying statistical methods or machine learning techniques, it would then be possible to filter through and potentially predict the optimal process parameters required for an AM build. The comprehensive information model is designed to provide insight to track changes along the AM process flow.