Inspecting Parts with the Markforged FX10

Markforged FX10 Laser Inspection Accurate 3D Prints

What is Eiger Inspection?

Inspecting parts with the Markforged FX10 is easy! Eiger is Markforged‘s dedicated 3D printing software, designed specifically for Markforged 3D printers and materials. It has facilities for managing printers, part files and slicing, 3D print time and cost estimation, Simulation, and today’s topic: Inspection.

Eiger Inspection uses the integrated laser scanners on Markforged 3D printers for quality control, continuously verifying accuracy layer by layer. The end result is a detailed analysis of your part.

In this blog we’re looking at how Markforged Inspection works with the Markforged FX10, why businesses it, and a real world example of Inspection being used in Aerospace and Defence. 

How Does Eiger Inspection Work?

It’s simple: Configure, Print, Scan, Inspect, Report.

FDM 3D Printers build objects additively, layer by layer. This is unusual when compared to other manufacturing methods – you can’t normally see the inside of a part that you are manufacturing. This difference is what makes Markforged Inspection possible.

The Markforged FX10 print head is equipped with a laser micrometre. It can use this highly accurate instrument to automatically take readings of every layer of a 3D print and create a detailed virtual image. See below; on the left is a pair of 3D printed brake levers, one with the ceiling layer removed so you can see the infill inside. On the right you can see a scan of one of the internal layers of this brake lever in Eiger Inspection.

Note that the FX10 can print and inspect metal, plastic, and composite parts, thanks to its new metal 3D printing upgrade and new Nylon White compatibility.

3D Printed Metal Ducati Brake Lever
Eiger Inspection Laser Scan of 3D Printed Ducati Brake Lever

You can see how easy it is to use Inspection in the 31 second video below from Markforged. The user selects the areas that they want to scan, chooses the scan resolution to use (low-medium-high-ultra), and whether or not to scan continuous fibres.

After the part has been 3D printed, they start inspecting. You can see all of the laser scan points on the CAD model, and show or hide these points based on the amount of deviation, measured in microns. This way you can quickly see where the biggest deviations are, and whether the part is within tolerance. You can see additional information on selected areas in the display on the right.

Finally they show us the Inspection Report. This contains a summary of critical figures, mean and standard deviation, and images highlighting any areas that are outside of your specifications. These automatically generated inspection reports are excellent for documentation and traceability, and make regulatory compliance far easier.

All it takes is a few clicks. How many 3D printers do you know that can do this?

Success Story: Why Hangar One Avionics Use Markforged Eiger Inspection

Based in San Diego, Hangar One Avionics is a service provider offering avionics, repair, and installation. Their customers are in general aviation, business aviation, and airborne law enforcement.

Very often their customers require one-off parts for aircraft; for example a console for a pilot seat. In the past, Hangar One Avionics built these low volume custom parts with CNC machines and other traditional subtractive manufacturing methods.

Hangar One Avionics discovered that many of the parts they created were excellent candidates for 3D printing. These parts are high complexity, low volume, and sometimes very difficult to fabricate via CNC machining. Programming also posed challenges for such complex parts, and continuous use of CNC machines is costly in materials and coolant.

By switching to additive manufacturing with Markforged, they were able to significantly reduce their manufacturing costs by replacing these aluminium parts with composites. Inspection took this a step further however; before parts can be used on aircraft they have to pass rigorous inspection procedures, whether they were traditionally machined or 3D printed. In the case of Hangar One Avionics, this manual process took 30-45 minutes per part to complete. 

By using Markforged Inspection, they saved on average 30 minutes per part. The automated nature of calibration, scanning and reporting made the process quicker and easier, ultimately saving manpower and money. In addition, the data from each scan is easily accessible in the cloud rather than on paper. This was a significant improvement for Hangar One, as it made conforming to traceability and FAA requirements for recordkeeping far easier.

Explaining why we use Inspection is simple. Inspection does the same thing that the old manual inspection process did. The difference is that Inspection digitizes the process which makes it faster, easier and more reliable.”

– Matthew Roth, Head of Machining at Hangar One

You can read the customer story blog on the Markforged website, and watch Matthew Roth from Hangar One talk about their work with Markforged in the webinar below. 

Which 3D Printers Can Use Markforged Inspection?

Markforged Eiger Inspection is compatible with the X3, X5, X7 and FX10 industrial 3D printers.

The FX10 has an additional benefit – it uses its laser micrometre to automatically calibrate with the print bed, making maintenance easier and more accurate.

Markforged X7 Print Head scanning with laser micrometre
3D Printer Bed Laser Scan

Learn more about other 3D Printing Applications in Aerospace and Defence!

Below are a selection of articles demonstrating the benefits of 3D printing in aerospace and defence, in real world applications. Click one of the images below to learn more!

Screenshot of the Cabin Management Solutions 3D printing case study

Aircraft Components

By 3D printing with Markforged’s certified and traceable materials, CMS can reliably meet all of their requirements and rapidly produce parts on the fly.

3D Printed ISS Aerospace Sensus L UAV

3D Printing UAVs

ISS Aerospace use Markforged 3D printers to rapidly iterate, eliminate outsourcing, and develop robust modular unmanned aircraft.

3D Printed LizzieSat Satellite

3D Printing Satellites

By 3D printing components of their spacecraft with Markforged’s aerospace certified Onyx FR-A, Sidus Space rapidly modify designs and reduce weight for critical tolerances.