Abstract

This work presents a material extrusion (MEX) additive manufacturing system equipped with layerwise inspection capabilities based on the CIS used in Epson’s Perfection V39 flatbed scanner. The sensor provides two analogue output signals, each comprising 2,584 voltage levels representing the amount of light reflected by the material. These signals are processed by parallel analogue-to-digital converters, which assign an 8-bit value to each pixel in the resulting digital image.

To overcome the limitations associated with conventional microcontroller-based architectures, a Zynq®-7000 system-on-chip (SoC) is employed. This device combines an ARM®-based processor with a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), enabling accurate, controlled and synchronised acquisition of data from the analogue-to-digital converters.

The resulting images can be processed using a range of algorithms to detect manufacturing defects, extract layer contours and assess the dimensional and geometric quality of the manufactured part. The proposed system therefore provides a basis for integrating high-resolution, layerwise optical inspection into material extrusion additive manufacturing processes.

Keywords

Additive Manufacturing, Layerwise In spection, Quality