Pipe Repair: new incoming Element X feature

Surfacing repair and coating using DED processes such as LASER cladding already occupy a key position in modern manufacturing activities. In case of damages, DED processes are used to deposit a corrosion-resistant overlay with the possibility to select a wide range of materials. In the case of large damaged surfaces, the repair process is proved to be quite demanding in terms of energy and material consumption.

At Elementiam, our team designs a repair strategy focused on the identification and extraction of damaged areas. Using computer vision and robust computational algorithms, our system is capable of identifying corrosion and wear at a scale of a thousand of an inch and extracting the corresponding negative volumes. The new functionality currently being implemented in Element X for pipe surfacing repair will allow the operators to accurately and efficiently repair outer pipe surfaces using existing equipment. By identifying the geometry of the damage, Element X will be able to compute an optimized repair strategy exclusively focusing on the damaged area saving material, energy, and time.

What advantages?

• The extracted negative volume is a manifold solid model that can be imported into any CAD/CAM software application for toolpath generation and then can be used for in-situ surfacing repair.

• The proposed process is fully automated from scanning to negative volume computation. As a standalone system, it can be integrated with any serial or cartesian robotic system.

• The geometrical characteristics of damage and wear are unpredictable. Consequently, the repair strategy must adapt in order to fully optimize the repair process. Using computer vision, the quantity of material and the localization of the deposition process are accurately computed by Element X leading to significant savings in terms of energy and material consumption.

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