WO2023046692A1

WO2023046692A1 - Method for inserting a label on a mechanical part obtained by additive manufacturing, and associated manufacturing method

Info

Publication number: WO2023046692A1
Application number: PCT/EP2022/076118
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emmanuel LIONET; Clément CHABERT
Original assignee: Beelse
Priority date: 2021-09-21
Filing date: 2022-09-20
Publication date: 2023-03-30
Also published as: FR3127152A1

Abstract

Method (100) for inserting at least one label on a mechanical part obtained by additive manufacturing, from a file relating to the mechanical part into which the label is to be inserted, referred to as original file, the insertion being performed on a surface of the mechanical part, referred to as the insertion surface, the method (100) comprising: a step (1E1) of determining the number of objects in the original file; a step (1E2) of modifying the original file so as to insert, embedded and/or in relief, the label onto the insertion surface and thus obtain at least one modified file corresponding to an insertion that is embedded or in relief; for each modified file, a step (1E3) of determining the number of objects in the modified file concerned; when the number of objects in the at least one of the modified files is different from the number of objects in the original file, a step (1E4) of detecting that it is impossible to insert the label in the insertion surface concerned.

Description

DESCRIPTION

TITLE: Process for inserting a label on a mechanical part obtained by additive manufacturing and associated manufacturing process

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The technical field of the invention is that of additive manufacturing.

The present invention relates to a process for inserting a label into a part obtained by additive manufacturing and in particular an insertion process which ensures that the surface on which the label will be inserted is compatible with such a insertion.

TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] As in any manufacturing process, monitoring the parts obtained by additive manufacturing is a crucial issue. In order to ensure such monitoring, it is known practice to insert a label on the surface or inside a part enabling the part in question to be identified or, at the very least, the series of parts to which the part belongs. part in question.

[0004] A first method consists in applying such a label to the part after its manufacture, for example by engraving. However, although perfectly suited to the classic manufacture of mechanical parts, it does not take advantage of the specificities of additive manufacturing. In particular, this technique does not make it possible to associate a reference located on a part with the file having made it possible to obtain said part and also comprising this reference. In addition, it is difficult to control, at the design stage, the location and the form that this label will take. Finally, this technique does not allow the placement of a label within the mechanical part (and no longer on its surface).

[0005] In order to overcome these drawbacks, it is known to import a CAD type file into dedicated software, then to insert a reference which will be specific to each part manufactured according to the initial CAD file (https://hawkridgesys .com/blog/serialization-of-3d-printed-parts-with-materialise-magics-and-hp-jet-fusion). However, the surface selected for affixing the label may not be suitable for such insertion, for example because it is too thin, not wide enough, etc. In this case, the part may be non-compliant, non-functional or even have only part of the label affixed. [0006]There is therefore a need for a method for inserting a label on a part obtained by additive manufacturing while ensuring that the surface chosen for the insertion of such a label actually authorizes such insertion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention offers a solution to the problems mentioned above, by making it possible to verify that a label is inserted correctly during additive manufacturing.

For this, a first aspect of the invention relates to a method for inserting at least one label on a mechanical part obtained by additive manufacturing, from a file relating to the mechanical part on which to be inserted the label, called the original file, the insertion taking place on a surface of the mechanical part, called the insertion surface, the method comprising: a step of determining the number of objects in the original file; a step of modifying the original file so as to insert, in overlay and/or in relief, the label on the insertion surface and thus obtain at least one modified file corresponding to an insertion in overlay or in relief; for each modified file, a step of determining the number of objects in the modified file considered; when the number of objects in the or at least one of the modified files is different from the number of objects in the original file, a step for detecting the impossibility of inserting the label into the insertion surface considered.

[0009] Thanks to the invention, it is possible to verify that the label inserted before additive manufacturing will be correctly inserted on the part thus manufactured.

[0010] In addition to the features which have just been mentioned in the previous paragraph, the method according to a first aspect of the invention may have one or more additional features from among the following, considered individually or in all technically possible combinations. [001 1] In one embodiment, the label used during the step of modifying the original file comprises at least one alphanumeric character comprising at least one closed outline.

A second aspect of the invention relates to a method of manufacturing at least one mechanical part by additive manufacturing from a file relating to the mechanical part to be manufactured, said original file, the method comprising: a step of inserting a label on the mechanical part using a method according to a first aspect of the invention; when no insertion impossibility is detected, a step of manufacturing the mechanical part, the label being inserted on said part during the additive manufacturing of said part.

A third aspect of the invention relates to a computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, lead the latter to implement the method according to a first aspect of the invention.

A fourth aspect of the invention relates to an additive manufacturing device comprising additive manufacturing means and means configured to implement a method according to a second aspect of the invention.

A fifth aspect of the invention relates to a computer program comprising instructions which lead the apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the invention to execute the steps of the method according to a second aspect of the invention.

A sixth aspect of the invention relates to a computer-readable medium, on which the computer program according to a third aspect of the invention or a fifth aspect of the invention is recorded.

The invention and its various applications will be better understood on reading the following description and on examining the accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

The figures are presented for information only and in no way limit the invention.

[0019] The [Fig. 1] shows a flowchart of a method according to a first aspect of the invention. [0020] The [Fig. 2] shows the 3D visualization of a mechanical part intended to be manufactured by additive manufacturing.

[0021] The [Fig. 3] shows a schematic representation of the selection of an insertion surface.

[0022] The [Fig. 4] shows, on the left, an insertion in relief, on the right, an insertion by inlay.

[0023] The [Fig. 5] shows a schematic representation of an insertion in relief on an insertion surface that does not correspond to a surface of the mechanical part.

[0024] The [Fig. 6] shows a schematic representation of an inlay insertion in which the insertion depth is greater than the thickness of the insertion surface.

[0025] The [Fig. 7] shows a flowchart of a method according to a second aspect of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The figures are presented for information only and in no way limit the invention. Unless specified otherwise, the same element appearing in different figures has a single reference.

[0027] Method for inserting a label on a mechanical part obtained by additive manufacturing

[0028] As illustrated in [Fig. 1], a first aspect of the invention relates to a method 100 for inserting at least one label LA on a mechanical part PM obtained by additive manufacturing. Being an insertion before manufacturing, the insertion is done initially on a digital representation of this mechanical part PM. Such a representation is illustrated in [Fig. 2]. Hereinafter, when no confusion is possible, the mechanical part PM and its representation in digital form will be designated by the term “mechanical part”. In one embodiment, the mechanical part PM can be made up of several parts (and therefore the original file includes as many objects) and the insertion of a label LA can be done on at least one part of these parts, or even on all of these parts. [0029] Label means an alphanumeric string, a bar code, a QR code or any other code making it possible to identify a mechanical part PM, part of a mechanical part PM and/or the series associated with a mechanical part PM .

The insertion method 100 according to the invention is implemented from a file relating to the mechanical part PM on which the label LA must be inserted. This file will be referred to below as the "original file". In addition, the insertion takes place on a surface of the mechanical part PM, called the insertion surface SL. This surface can for example be selected by the user from an interface (such as that illustrated in [Fig. 2]) allowing to visualize the mechanical part in three dimensions.

[0031 ] Step for selecting an insertion surface

To this end, in one embodiment, the method 100 according to the invention comprises a step of selection, by the user, of an insertion surface SL. Such a step is illustrated in [Fig. 3] on which the insertion surface SI is selected using a cursor, for example by designating the position of the borders of the insertion surface SL This step can be implemented before or after step 1 E1 for determining the number of objects in the original file, but before step 1 E2 for modifying the original file, this modification involving knowing the insertion surface SI (these steps will be described later) . In one embodiment, the insertion surface is a rectangular surface having a length between 30 mm and 41 mm (terminals included) and a width between 4 mm and 8 mm (terminals included), for example a length equal to 41 mm and a width equal to 6mm.

[0033] Step 1 E1 of determining the number of objects in the original file

The insertion method 100 according to the invention comprises a step 1 E1 of determining the number of objects in the original file so as to know the number of objects in the original file. Indeed, the original idea of the inventors was to realize that, when an LA label is inserted on one or more parts of a mechanical part PM, the number of objects associated with this part PM should not be modified after insertion. It is therefore necessary to determine the number of objects before (this is the role of the present step 1 E1 ) and after the insertion of the label or labels (this is the role of a step 1 E3 which will be described in the following). The determination of the number of objects associated with a mechanical part PM is an operation known in the field and therefore does not require a detailed description. However, for didactic purposes, a method allowing such a determination is presented in the form of pseudocode. [0036] Inputs: faces: Table of faces of the mechanical part. Each face is an array of three integers that each correspond to a point number (point coordinates are not required).

[0037] Return: - objects: Array of sets of objects (each element will be a set of points).

[0038]

GroupObjects(faces):|

For each face f of faces:

Indexes: []

For each object or of objects:

If o has a point of f:

Add index of o to indexes

Merge sets of objects whose indexes are in indexes

Add the points of f in the merged set.

Remove sets of objects whose indexes are in indexes

Add merged set to objects

Flip objects

[0039] This pseudo-code provides in return a set of points table. The number of objects in the PM part is therefore equal to the number of elements in the array.

[0040] Step 1 E2 of modifying the original file so as to insert a label [0041] The method according to the invention also comprises a step 1 E2 of modifying the original file so as to insert, in overlay and/or in relief, a label LA on the insertion surface SI and thus obtain at least a modified file corresponding to an overlay or embossed insertion. The [Fig. 4] illustrates such a step in the case of an insertion in relief (on the left) and in the case of an insertion by inlay (on the right).

[0042] In one embodiment, the insertion is done in overlay or (exclusively) in relief and a single modified file is therefore produced.

[0043] In an alternative embodiment, the insertion is made in overlay and in relief, and two modified files are thus produced: a first modified file relating to the overlay insertion and a second modified file relating to the insertion in relief. The fact of using the two modes of insertion rather than a single mode makes it possible to detect errors which would not have been detected by using a single file, for example relating to the overlay. To give just one example illustrated in [Fig. 5], if a label is inserted on an insertion surface which is not linked to a surface of the mechanical part PM, an insertion by overlay will not produce an additional object and the error associated with this insertion on a non-existent surface will therefore not be detected. On the other hand, under the same conditions, an insertion by relief will produce one or more additional objects (for example, as many as characters in the LA label) which will make it possible to detect the error associated with this insertion.

In one embodiment, the label LA used during step 1 E2 of modifying the original file comprises at least one alphanumeric character comprising at least one closed outline. Preferably, the label comprises only alphanumeric characters comprising at least one closed contour. The closed contour alphanumeric character can for example be chosen from 6, 8, 0 (zero), O or any other character of the same type. Using closed-outline characters makes it easier to create additional objects when inserting through through-the-key, i.e. when the embedding depth is greater than or equal to the thickness of the surface insertion SL An example of a through key is given in [Fig. 6].

Once the modified file or files have been produced, it is necessary to determine how many objects are present in each of them. [0046] Step for determining the number of objects in the modified file

As already mentioned, the method 100 according to the invention comprises, for each modified file, a step 1 E3 of determining the number of objects in the modified file considered. In other words, if a single file is obtained at the end of the previous step 1 E2 because a single insertion mode has been considered, then this step 1 E3 of determination is only done for this file. On the other hand, if two files are obtained corresponding to the two insertion modes described above, then the number of objects is determined for each of these files and therefore for each of the insertion modes.

The determination of the number of objects in the modified file(s) can be made using the same method as described previously for the original file, or even using a different method. Likewise, if two modified files are used, a different method can be used for each of the files, a first method then being used for the first file and a second method then being used for the second file.

[0049] Step for detecting an impossibility of inserting the label

[0050] At the end of the previous step 1 E3, at least two files have been produced, an original file and one or two modified files. In addition, the number of objects in each of these files was also determined. If it is not possible to insert the LA label in the SI insertion surface, the number of objects between the original file and at least one of the modified files will be different.

[0051] Also, as mentioned previously, the method 100 according to the invention comprises, when the number of objects thus determined is different from the number of objects determined in the original file, a step 1 E4 of detecting an impossibility of insertion of the label LA in the insertion surface SI considered. It is useful to note that, for an impossibility to be detected, it is necessary and sufficient that the number of objects in the original file is different from the number of objects in one of the modified files. In other words, for example, if two modified files have been produced and only one of them contains a number of objects different from the number of objects in the original file, then an impossibility of insertion will still be detected.

[0052] Parameters relating to the label In one embodiment, the insertion of a label is done according to one or more parameters. In one embodiment, a first parameter relates to the mode of insertion: the insertion can be done by overlay or in relief. In one embodiment, the parameters may relate to the depth of the inlay, the height of the relief, the character font used, the size of the character font, etc. Thus, the detection of an impossibility of insertion concerns all of these parameters (for example, the impossibility of insertion can be due to a font size that is too large or even to an overlay depth that is too large to give just two examples).

[0054] Additive manufacturing process

In order to take advantage of the insertion method 100 which has just been described, a second aspect of the invention illustrated in [Fig. 7] relates to a method 200 of additive manufacturing of at least one PM mechanical part by additive manufacturing from a file relating to the PM mechanical part to be manufactured, called the original file.

The method 200 according to a second aspect of the invention comprises a step 2E1 of inserting a label LA on the mechanical part PM using a method 100 according to a first aspect of the invention. At the end of this step, an LA label was inserted on the PM mechanical part to be manufactured and a check was made to determine whether the insertion of this LA label was compatible with the PM mechanical part.

Thus, when no impossibility of insertion is detected, the method 200 according to a second aspect of the invention comprises step 2E2 of inserting the manufacturing of the mechanical part PM, the label LA being inserted on said part PM during of the additive manufacturing of said PM part.

At the end of this process, one or more mechanical parts PM each having a label LA making it possible to identify the mechanical part PM (or the different parts of the components) and/or the series associated with said mechanical part PM are obtained.

When the LA label is a serial number, the latter can take several forms.

[0060] As mentioned in the introduction, in general, before being able to be ordered, a PM mechanical part goes through an approval stage, in which the future supplier of the PM mechanical part validates the feasibility of the PM mechanical part. Thus, if the PM mechanical part file leaks and it is produced without the owner's consent, the origin of the leak can be traced using the number on the PM mechanical part.

[0061] For example, a PM mechanical part begins its approval stage. During this step, the future supplier of the part is assigned an LA label allowing it to be identified, for example the number 4083. In one embodiment, the coding is carried out in hexadecimal, which gives FF3 for this example. In this example, the two characters at the end of the label have no meaning and will always be 'FF'. The PM mechanical part sent to the supplier will therefore have an LA label ‘00FF3-FF’ which can be used as a “serial number” engraved on an SI insertion surface defined by the owner. Of course, the method 100 according to a first aspect of the invention could be used to check the possibility of such an insertion. This insertion at the approval stage also allows the supplier to view the location of the serial numbers that will be generated when ordering this PM mechanical part.

When an order is placed, it is then possible to use an algorithm so as to determine the serial numbers to be applied to each mechanical part PM of the order. In one embodiment, these serial numbers depend on the order number and the index of PM mechanical parts in the list of PM mechanical parts that have the serial number set. Thus, in an order, all the copies of the same PM mechanical part that will be produced by a supplier will have the same serial number.

In an exemplary embodiment, the label LA is a serial number and the latter comprises seven hexadecimal characters and a hyphen so that: the first five characters correspond to the identifier of the order relating to the part PM mechanics; the sixth character is always a hyphen; and the last two characters correspond to the location of the PM mechanical part in the list of PM mechanical parts of this order.

Claims

[Claim 1] Method (100) for inserting at least one label (LA) on a mechanical part (PM) obtained by additive manufacturing, from a file relating to the mechanical part on which the label must be inserted , said original file, the insertion taking place on a surface of the mechanical part (PM), called the insertion surface (SI), the method (100) comprising:

- a step (1 E1 ) of determining the number of objects in the original file;

- a step (1 E2) of modifying the original file so as to insert, in overlay and/or in relief, the label (LA) on the insertion surface (SI) and thus obtain at least one corresponding modified file to an insertion in inlay or in relief;

- for each modified file, a step (1 E3) for determining the number of objects in the modified file considered;

- when the number of objects in the or at least one of the modified files is different from the number of objects in the original file, a step (1 E4) of detecting an impossibility of inserting the label (LA) in the insertion surface (SI) considered.

[Claim 2] Method according to the preceding claim, in which the label (LA) used during the step (1 E2) of modifying the original file comprises at least one alphanumeric character comprising at least one closed contour.

[Claim 3] Method according to one of the preceding claims in which, during the step (1 E2) of modifying the original file, the insertion of the label (LA) is a function of at least one parameter comprising the depth of the insertion, the height of the insertion and/or the mode of insertion, said mode of insertion being chosen from among a mode of insertion in overlay or a mode of insertion in relief.

[Claim 4] Data processing device comprising means configured to implement a method (100) according to one of the preceding claims.

[Claim 5] Computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the latter to implement the method according to one of Claims 1 to 3.

[Claim 6] Process (200) for manufacturing at least one mechanical part (PM) by additive manufacturing from a file relating to the mechanical part (PM) to be manufactured, said original file, the process (200 ) including:

- a step (2E1) of inserting a label (LA) on the mechanical part (PM) using a method (100) according to one of claims 1 to 3;

- when no insertion impossibility is detected, a step (2E2) of manufacturing the mechanical part (PM), the label (LA) being inserted on said part (PM) during the additive manufacturing of said part (PM) .

[Claim 7] Additive manufacturing apparatus comprising additive manufacturing means and means configured to implement a method according to the preceding claim.

[Claim 8] A computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer, cause the latter to carry out the method according to claim 6.

[Claim 9] A computer-readable medium on which the computer program according to claim 5 or claim 8 is recorded.