US 2014/0277662 A1 · MANUFACTURE MODELING AND MONITORING

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for analyzing, monitoring, and/or modeling the manufacture of a type of part by a manufacturing process. Non-destructive evaluation data and/or quality related data collected from manufactured parts of the type of part may be aligned to a simulated model associated with the type of part. Based on the aligned data, the manufacturing process may be monitored to determine whether the manufacturing process is operating properly; aspects of the manufacturing process may be spatially correlated to the aligned data; and/or the manufacturing process may be analyzed.

Claims51

Dependent claims

A method of monitoring a type of part in a system of the type that includes at least one processing unit and a memory, the method comprising:

receiving a non-destructive evaluation (NDE) dataset, wherein the NDE dataset is associated with a particular part of the type of part, wherein the NDE dataset for the part includes a plurality of NDE data points, wherein each NDE dataset corresponds to data collected during non-destructive evaluation of the particular part;
aligning the NDE dataset to a simulated model associated with at least a portion of the type of part, including aligning each NDE data point to a corresponding simulated location on the simulated model;
analyzing at least a subset of the aligned NDE data points and the simulated location corresponding to each aligned NDE data point of the subset to determine a spatially correlated statistic based at least in part on the NDE data points of the subset and the corresponding simulated locations for the particular part;
and
generating output data based at least in part on the spatially correlated statistic.

2 more elements

A method of monitoring manufacture of a particular type of part by a manufacturing process including a plurality of manufacturing steps in a system of the type that includes at least one processing unit and a memory, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) datasets, wherein each NDE dataset is associated with a manufactured part of the particular type of manufactured part, wherein the NDE dataset for each manufactured part of the particular type of part includes NDE data associated with an area of interest for the associated manufactured part, wherein each NDE dataset corresponds to data collected during non-destructive evaluation of the associated manufactured part;
aligning the plurality of NDE datasets to a simulated model associated with at least a portion of the particular type of part, including aligning NDE data associated with the area of interest from each manufactured part to corresponding simulated locations on the simulated model associated with the area of interest;
and
analyzing NDE data aligned to corresponding simulated locations associated with the area of interest for each manufactured part to determine a statistic associated with the area of interest for each manufactured part.

1 more element

receiving a plurality of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) datasets, wherein each NDE dataset is associated with a manufactured part of the particular type of manufactured part, wherein the NDE dataset for each manufactured part of the particular type of part includes NDE data associated with an area of interest for the associated manufactured part, wherein each NDE dataset corresponds to data collected during non-destructive evaluation of the associated manufactured part;
aligning the plurality of NDE datasets to a simulated model associated with at least a portion of the particular type of part, including aligning NDE data associated with the area of interest from each manufactured part to corresponding simulated locations on the simulated model associated with the area of interest;
and
analyzing each NDE dataset to detect any manufactured part including a sub-rejectable physical characteristic associated with the area of interest based at least in part on the NDE data aligned to corresponding simulated locations associated with the area of interest on the simulated model.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Manufacture modeling and monitoring

Life of this patent

Manufacture modeling and monitoring

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims51