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3D Print Jobs Are More Accurate With Machine Learning

USC engineers have developed AI that can make any 3D printer more precise
3D printing is already being used to produce electric bikes, chocolate bars, and even human skin. Now, a new AI algorithm that learns each printer’s imprecisions can tweak print jobs to ensure greater accuracy.

The engineers who developed the algorithm find it increases a 3D printer’s accuracy by up to 50 percent. That can make a big difference for high-precision industrial jobs, says Qiang Huang, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California, who helped create it.

Industrial 3D printers and additive manufacturing devices often use expensive materials, so the cost of throwing out prints that aren’t quite right can add up. For instance, it can cost hundreds of dollars in materials to 3D print a single airplane part. And some printers require seven to 10 drafts per job in order to fabricate an object that is accurate in every dimension and curve.

Huang’s group’s program, PrintFixer, requires a given printer to only produce five to 10 draft objects during initial setup. Once those objects are 3D laser scanned and compared to the computer-aided design (CAD) files that generated them, the algorithm develops a neural net model of the printer’s inaccuracies. ... "