ORNL Has Released Free 3D Printing Datasets for Better AM Quality Control

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) continues to show its dedication to advancing more industrialized additive manufacturing in the United States. And it’s not just 3D printed parts and materials coming out from the research institution. According to a recent press release, the ORNL has publicly released 3D printing datasets to help users to verify the quality of additively manufactured parts without restoring to post-production analysis.

Quality control is one of the biggest stumbling blocks slowing down the wider of adoption of additive manufacturing. Although 3D printed parts have been proven to be of the same quality or even superior to components made using more traditional methods, the fact that the industry is so new compared to other processes means that quality control research is nowhere near as extensive. But this announcement will allow users to take a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

The 3D printing datasets from the ORNL are available publically and can be used for quality control (photo credits: ORNL)

Vincent Paquid, head of the ORNL Secure and Digital Manufacturing section, confirms, “We are providing trustworthy datasets for industry to use toward certification of products. This is a data management platform structured to tell a complete story around an additively manufactured component. The goal is to use in-process measurements to predict the performance of the printed part.”