Distributed Additive Manufacturing: Concept for the Application of JT (ISO 14306) as Downstream Process Format

Additive manufacturing is gaining new impetus due to decreasing costs for additive manufacturing machines and materials, and the continuous improvement of additive manufacturing technology itself. The integration of modern internet technologies paves the way for a globally distributed additive manufacturing, but recently used data formats fall short to offer consistent solutions to address current and future requirements for efficient distributed additive manufacturing. The integration of the standardized 3D data format JT (ISO 14306) in distributed additive manufacturing enables the deployment of additive manufacturing processes based on open standards with a suitable integration in established engineering applications. Different geometry representations, integration of meta data, harmonization with other standardized data formats like STEP and the prevalence in industry lead to the usage of one standardized 3D data format for all engineering downstream processes. In this paper, two approaches for the integration of JT based on automated conversion and JT based slicing and tool path generation are introduced and validated. The utilization of web services enables the controlling and monitoring of additive manufacturing processes on mobile devices, independent of the location, for an efficient collaboration on a global scale.