AM quality assurance software developer Sigma Labs has been granted two U.S. patents for its PrintRite3D software platform. The recently obtained patents expand the company’s intellectual property portfolio, making for a total of 11 issued patents and 24 pending patents.
Sigma Labs’ PrintRite3D software enables manufacturers to detect defects that occur in the powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process with real-time melt pool analytics. The quality assurance software can help to save manufacturers time and money by accelerating the transition of AM to serial production.
The two new patents obtained by Sigma Labs for its software are: U.S. Application No. 16/234,333, titled “Systems and Methods for Additive Manufacturing Operations”; and U.S. Application No. 16/282,004, titled “Systems and Methods for Measuring Radiated Thermal Energy During an Additive Manufacturing Operation”.
“I am extremely proud of our world-class engineering team and the diverse set of core-competencies that have come together at Sigma to solve these critical problems,” commented Darren Beckett, Chief Technology Officer of Sigma Labs. “The speed of innovation and selfless teamwork, is unlike any I have seen in my professional career.”
Mark K. Ruport, Executive Chairman, commented on the patents, saying: “3D manufacturing will become more and more critical to the major economies of the world in order to shorten and simplify complex supply chains by manufacturing metal parts closer to home. The recent crisis highlights the fact that economies that are too interdependent are subject to significant slowdowns in times of crisis. The fact that our technology could play a role in accelerating the industrialization of 3D metal printing, validates the investments that we have made in developing and commercializing our PrintRite3D product.”
Just weeks ago, Sigma Labs announced the launch of the new PrintRite3D Production Series, which introduced new features like a Production Dashboard as well as AI-driven metrics to improve the AM process. The PrintRite3D Production Series is built to enhance the speed and agility of the AM process by streamlining design and development and accelerating 3D manufacturing machine qualification.
Sigma Labs is now aiming to expand its footprint in the AM market by forming strategic partnerships with hardware and software vendors, OEMs, R&D groups, educational institutions and key players in the aerospace, medical, automotive and oil and gas industries. In the past month or so, the company has revealed collaborations with Mississippi State University CAVS, which is integrating PrintRite3D with a Renishaw AM400 3D printer, as well as with Materialise to integrate Materialise’ MCP Controller with PrintRite3D.
