At Formnext, the global exhibition and conference on additive manufacturing (AM) — held 19-22 November in Frankfurt — global engineering company Renishaw presented its real-time process monitoring systems for AM.

David Ewing, additive manufacturing product manager at Renishaw, delivered a talk entitled Real-time process monitoring accelerates process development and streamlines process control.

He said that, while AM enables quick and customisable production of complex designs, the risk of imperfections poses challenges for many in the industry; and as metal AM becomes more widely adopted in global production processes, industry will need a reliable method to detect defects at high speed and with impeccable accuracy.

With this in mind, Renishaw showcased its InfiniAM Spectral — a software product capable of real-time process monitoring.

“InfiniAM Spectral allows manufacturers to analyse processes in 3-D as designs are built, which improves understanding of build quality.

"When used with the intelligent sensing capabilities of Renishaw RenAM systems, InfiniAM Spectral software allows users to view and analyse the hidden details of metal AM products, increasing confidence in the build process.”

Renishaw also showed case studies of some of its collaborations, such as with the Brunel University Formula Student racing car.

This vehicle demonstrates the effectiveness of AM in automotive applications, with a custom manifold part made using Renishaw’s multi-laser RenAM 500Q system (www.renishaw.com/additive).