The 3MF Consortium welcomes Tailored Alloys as its newest member. The company develops software and hardware for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), with a focus on build transparency, reproducible digital threads and first-time-right qualification. Its application areas include hypersonic vehicles, refractory alloys and point-of-need production.
Tailored Alloys has been critical to the development of the 3MF Toolpath extension: reviewing the specification against real LPBF process development workflows, testing implementations, and contributing requirements for scan strategy and parameter control.
The Toolpath extension
The Toolpath extension defines an open, non-proprietary way to store layer-based toolpath data in a 3MF package, including scan vectors and the process parameters assigned to them.
Today this information typically lives in machine-specific and/or outdated build file formats, which ties slicing, simulation and inspection software to individual machine vendors.
The extension is currently in the consortium voting process and is intended to proceed to ISO standardization, following the 3MF core specification. The specification is public on GitHub: github.com/3MFConsortium/spec_toolpath
Why it matters for LPBF
Hunter Taylor, CTO of Tailored Alloys:
“I see the 3MF Toolpath extension doing for LPBF what G-code did for CNC. A non-proprietary toolpath format for LPBF will enable inspection to begin before the build, because digital inspection tools will not be built for a machine-specific format. Removing the barrier of file format between slicer and machine will also unlock innovation by letting users leverage rapidly evolving toolpathing solutions. I could go on and on, but I simply believe this will be the single most impactful thing to happen to LPBF in the next 10 years, if machine makers rapidly and fully adopt the file format and all its advanced capability.”
An open toolpath format is only useful to the extent that machine manufacturers read it. The consortium encourages LPBF machine makers, slicer developers and inspection software vendors to review the specification and take part in its implementation. Contact us if you have any questions about how your company can implement the Toolpath extension, either as a producer or consumer.
// About Hunter Taylor
Hunter Taylor is CTO of Tailored Alloys. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, where his research at the W.M. Keck Center focused on LPBF process sensitivity and alloy development.
// About Tailored Alloys
Tailored Alloys develops software and hardware to unlock the potential of laser powder bed fusion across its many applications.