Digital Traveler - Tracking and Identification for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

As Additive Manufacturing technology improves, a significant number of commercial enterprises will adopt Additive Manufacturing technology for at least some aspects of their electronic commerce sales and industrial production capacity utilizing additive manufacturing. Software system, tools and data processing methods therefore pose significant obstacles to the widespread adoption of industrial-scale Additive Manufacturing. As such, computer implemented methods and systems enabling commercial opportunities for both electronic commerce and Enterprise or industrial-scale additive manufacturing (AM) workflow management are both desired and required as an enabling technology for the widespread adoption of Additive Manufacturing, especially at-scale where the larger the volume of throughput, creates more reliance on automation. The Prior Disclosure, a Made-To-Order Digital Manufacturing Enterprise method and system focused primarily on the Mass-Customization aspects of the overall invention while illustrating what the system does through subsequent processing of the 3D CAD Models generated by the Co-Design method. The figures and illustrations also disclosed workflow technology particularly useful for the production portion of the invention or the “Digital Manufacturing Enterprise” portion of the invention. The prior disclosure provided both the Made-To-Order portion of a system for providing and enabling e-commerce adapted to enable Co-Design of 3D CAD Models and data preparation and delivery or transfer to a Digital Manufacturing Enterprise system arranged for Additive Manufacturing workflow management. The overall system can at least therefore, be split into two distinct inventions each performing portions of the methods described and providing utility for adoption of Additive Manufacturing in both e-commerce and production operations. The prior disclosure additionally provided sufficient illustrative examples of the data processing controller modules and systems to further split portions of the overall Made-to-order Digital Manufacturing Enterprise system into additional discrete inventions each providing commercial utility apart from the other portions. In this manner, each portion of the invention may be performed by discrete computing devices and each portion potentially operated by different commercial entities or a single entity and where the discrete systems and their computing hardware are communicatively coupled with one another in the performance of the invention. Additionally, it is necessary for an agnostic commercial Made-To-Order Digital Manufacturing Enterprise software solution for Enterprise or Industrial-scale Additive Manufacturing to be developed that is agnostic, meaning it is compatible with all manufacturers' technologies without prejudice in order to allow the commercial user to integrate and utilize many different AM technologies when operating fleets of AM equipment. Additionally, Additive Manufacturing machines from different vendors provide different processing methods and different materials. In fact, there are many competing Additive Manufacturing technologies and methods, and each has advantages and disadvantages over competing technology. Commercial users of AM technology must therefore use multiple different AM machines deploying multiple different AM technologies to produce products or parts in different materials depending on their manufacturing and engineering needs. Additionally, commercial organizations utilizing such systems can share production resources in an automated networked method to achieve higher machine utilization through edge manufacturing (distributed manufacturing) which also has the benefit of reducing carbon footprint, lead time, reduces shipping cost, transit time and eliminates import/export duties and tariffs while creating local jobs for production.

1 . A method for part tracking and identification in Additive Manufacturing Workflow for dynamically generating 3D CAD geometry part marking comprising:
 a. A Digital Traveler system controller [ 309 ] comprised of software programming code [ 163 ] arranged and configured to control general computing hardware and having at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory associated with the general computing hardware to:
 i. receive, from a commercial user using a user device, by the Digital Traveler controller a selection of a base 3D CAD Model file [ 280 ]; 
 ii. generate, by the Digital Traveler controller, and cause to be displayed, on the commercial user device, an interface [ 314 ] for configuring a digital traveler feature and a representation of the base 3D CAD Model geometry; 
 iii. receive, by the Digital Traveler Controller, from the commercial user, using a user device, criteria and configuration data for the digital traveler feature and storing the information for recall [ 285 ]; 
 iv. receive, by the Digital Traveler controller, a request to generate geometry for a traveler feature for a 3D CAD Model received by the system, during a process for manufacturing subroutine [ 312 ]; 
 v. parse, by the Digital Traveler controller [ 281 ] both the base 3D CAD model and digital traveler configuration data for the respective 3D CAD model; 
 vi. cause, by the Digital Traveler controller, the Digital Traveler geometry to be generated [ 282 ], according to the digital traveler feature configuration [ 501 ]; 
 vii. transfer or route, by the Digital Traveler subsystem the modified 3D CAD Model or data handling of the CAD Model [ 284 ], now containing the digital traveler geometry to an additional subsystem for downstream processing [ 502 ]; and 
 viii. wherein the additional subsystem may be a stacking [ 307 ] and nesting controller [ 308 ] for generating nested arrangements of batches [ 267 ] of 3D CAD Model files arranged to receive the updated 3D CAD model file for production by Additive Manufacturing and now conveying the additional information as geometry for part tracking and identification. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to enable a commercial user to communicate with the Digital Traveler controller to establish a user profile or account and to input system performance criteria. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to perform the Digital Traveler controller functionality in conjunction with at least one of; an electronic commerce system adapted to store, generate and use 3D CAD models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing, a PDM/PLM system adapted to use and generate copies of 3D CAD models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing or a Co-Design system that uses and generates 3D CAD Models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to work in conjunction with additional subsystems and modular controllers by means of an API or other network communication method. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to enable the digital traveler geometry to take the form of at least one of; an appendage, a tab, a placard, a sprue, direct part marking and at least one of; human readable data, a corporate logo, emblem, 2-D barcodes, 3D Data matrices, 3D text or other geometry describable as 3D Geometry and formable by a 3D CAD kernel. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to allow conveyance of at least one of; order number, customer number, manufacturing date, manufacturing location, lot number, heat number, MTR number, facility number, origin code, routing code, serial number, or other required or desired information describable as 3D Geometry and formable by a 3D CAD Kernel. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to generate 3D geometry of a 2D hash related to a Blockchain sequence for part tracking and identification where the hash encodes product information or other data required or desired to be encoded. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to operate in conjunction with an PDM/PLM/ERP system, pulling revision-controlled CAD model files from the PDM/PLM/ERP system for addition of a digital traveler feature. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  treating each 3D CAD Model as the object being routed, nested, and scheduled by the system. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  additionally configured to dynamically generate a digital traveler feature programmatically by defining the information to be generated and without first defining the feature location related to the base 3D CAD Model. 
     
     
         11 . A system enabling commercial opportunities for part tracking and identification in an Additive Manufacturing Workflow system by dynamically generating 3D CAD geometry comprising:
 a. A Digital Traveler system controller [ 309 ] comprised of software programming code [ 163 ] arranged and configured to control general computing hardware and having at least one non-transitory computer-readable memory associated with the general computing hardware to:
 i. receive, from a commercial user using a user device, by the Digital Traveler controller a selection of a base 3D CAD Model file [ 280 ]; 
 ii. generate, by the Digital Traveler controller, and cause to be displayed, on the commercial user device, an interface [ 314 ] for configuring a digital traveler feature and a representation of the base 3D CAD Model geometry; 
 iii. receive, by the Digital Traveler Controller, from the commercial user, using a user device, criteria and configuration data for the digital traveler feature and storing the information for recall [ 285 ]; 
 iv. receive, by the Digital Traveler controller, a request to generate geometry for a traveler feature for a 3D CAD Model received by the system, during a process for manufacturing subroutine [ 312 ]; 
 v. parse, by the Digital Traveler controller [ 281 ] both the base 3D CAD model and digital traveler configuration data for the respective 3D CAD model; 
 vi. cause, by the Digital Traveler controller, the Digital Traveler geometry to be generated [ 282 ], according to the digital traveler feature configuration [ 501 ]; 
 vii. transfer or route, by the Digital Traveler subsystem the modified 3D CAD Model or data handling of the CAD Model [ 284 ], now containing the digital traveler geometry to an additional subsystem for downstream processing [ 502 ]; and 
 viii. wherein the additional subsystem may be a stacking [ 307 ] and nesting controller [ 308 ] for generating nested arrangements of batches [ 267 ] of 3D CAD Model files arranged to receive the updated 3D CAD model file for production by Additive Manufacturing and now conveying the additional information as geometry for part tracking and identification. 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to enable a commercial user to communicate with the Digital Traveler controller to establish a user profile or account and to input system performance criteria. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to perform the Digital Traveler controller functionality in conjunction with at least one of; an electronic commerce system adapted to store, generate and use 3D CAD models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing, a PDM/PLM system adapted to use and generate copies of 3D CAD models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing or a Co-Design system that uses and generates 3D CAD Models for order fulfillment by additive manufacturing. 
     
     
         14 . The system  claims 11  additionally configured to work in conjunction with additional subsystems and modular controllers by means of an API or other network communication method. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to enable the digital traveler geometry to take the form of at least one of; an appendage, a tab, a placard, a sprue, direct part marking and at least one of; human readable data, a corporate logo, emblem, 2-D barcodes, 3D Data matrices, 3D text or other geometry describable as 3D Geometry and formable by a 3D CAD kernel. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to allow conveyance of at least one of; order number, customer number, manufacturing date, manufacturing location, lot number, heat number, MTR number, Blockchain hash, facility number, origin code, routing code, serial number, or other required or desired information describable as 3D Geometry and formable by a 3D CAD Kernel. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to generate 3D geometry of a 2D hash related to a Blockchain sequence for part tracking and identification where the hash encodes product information or other data required or desired to be encoded. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to store nested tray files in a queue or buffer for transfer, upon request to an IP address, Mac Address, Web address or networked Additive Manufacturing device specified in the request. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to operate in conjunction with an PDM/PLM system. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 11  additionally configured to dynamically generate a digital traveler feature programmatically by defining the information to be generated and without first defining the feature location related to the base 3D CAD Model.