{"id":33924,"date":"2021-10-27T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T00:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=33924"},"modified":"2021-10-26T23:29:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:29:36","slug":"osaka-university-quality-control-3d-printing-271020214","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/osaka-university-quality-control-3d-printing-271020214\/","title":{"rendered":"Osaka University Researchers Discover Ultrasonic Quality Control Method"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">As additive manufacturing companies embrace the design freedom of 3D printing products and parts, they also have to overcome the obstacle of maintaining quality control. Researchers from Osaka University in Japan have uncovered a solution that will help companies achieve highly complex 3D-printed products while conserving high-caliber consistency in the print process. In an academic study published in <em>Ultrasonics<\/em>, researchers from Osaka University used laser ultrasonics to detect what they called <em>fine-scale defects<\/em> below the surface of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/metal-3d-printing-eos-and-audi-190320214\/\">3D-printed metal<\/a> assemblies. This study lead to the discovery of a unique quality control technology that can be applied throughout the 3D printing industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">In traditional manufacturing or subtractive manufacturing, quality control can be conducted at each step of the process. However, quality control checks become challenging when rapidly building a prototype or a complex product. &#8220;<em>It is often challenging to use laser-generated ultrasonic echoes for identifying subsurface defects in 3D-printed devices,&#8221;<\/em> explains the lead author of the study Takahiro Hayashi.<em> &#8220;We generated ultrasonic waves in the megahertz range to uncover small defects that are frequently difficult to image.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33928\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33928\" class=\"wp-image-33928 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-3.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-3-600x343.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-3-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-33928\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The study revealed the potential to implement a real-time defect detection system.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Quality Control for 3D Printing<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Within 3D printing and the layer-by-layer assembly comes the obstacle of having to detect internal defects, without damaging the product\u2014this is precisely what the researchers at Osaka University examined in their study. The researcher created artificial defects in a 3D-printed part to conduct their analysis. First, they fabricated an aluminum plate that had a millimeter-scale hole drilled into it. Next, they placed a thin, defect-free aluminum plate on top. The unit was then scanned with a laser across the surface which resulted in ultrasonic vibrations from the aluminum.<\/p><div class=\"dnati-inside-article-leaderboard\" style=\"text-align: center;\" id=\"dnati-3481524879\"><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/eu.snapmaker.com\/products\/snapmaker-u1-3d-printer?utm_source=3dnatives&#038;utm_medium=pr&#038;utm_campaign=u1launch2025&#038;utm_content=u1preorder\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"850 x 150px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-600x106.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-1200x212.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-768x136.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-1536x271.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-2048x361.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/850-x-150px-160x28.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" width=\"850\" height=\"150\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mathematical processing of these vibrations produced a graphical readout that illustrated where the defect (the hole) was located as well as the size of the internal defect. The results of this study revealed the potential to implement a large-scale defect detection system that would allow for real-time repair of parts as they are being 3D-printed. This would be particularly helpful for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/fast-complexity-efficient-and-customizable-concrete-3d-printing\/\">3D printing complex parts<\/a> on a commercial scale. You can learn more about this study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/929053\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_33926\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33926\" class=\"wp-image-33926 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"3D printing quality control\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-2-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-2-1-600x343.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/10\/3Dnatives-inside-article-700x400-2-1-160x91.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-33926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Osaka University<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p5\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">What do you think of Osaka University&#8217;s quality control discovery? \u00a0Let us know in a comment below or on our <a class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/4987104\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/4987104\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">Linkedin<\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/3Dnatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/3Dnatives\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/3Dnatives_en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/3Dnatives_en\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0pages! 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You can also find all our videos on our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMWrNpdLOXa7BffRKXZoaZw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCMWrNpdLOXa7BffRKXZoaZw\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As additive manufacturing companies embrace the design freedom of 3D printing products and parts, they also have to overcome the obstacle of maintaining quality control. Researchers from Osaka University in Japan have uncovered a solution that will help companies achieve&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6083,"featured_media":33925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-technologies","category-news","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6083"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33933,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33924\/revisions\/33933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}