Sigma Labs Inc (SASI)

[Envirosciguy]

I, as I'm sure many others here, like to do periodic searches to scour for tidbits related to Sigma Labs. 

GOOD NEWS 

A Google search for 3D printing quality assurance, reveals that Sigma Labs is listed in 6 of the top 7 results (minus an HP advertisement). For a small company with no real marketing budget that is huge if you ask me. Not to mention the lack of other competitors being listed. 

NOT SO GOOD NEWS 

I'm hoping the following will not come to fruition for a long time. I also wonder how competitive things are between national labs. Surely the experts over at ORNL have heard of Sigma Labs. 

http://www.ornl.gov/ornl/news/features/2013/3d-printing-rises-to-the-occasion ;

Quality control is also an issue, one that is especially important in areas such as medical implants or aerospace manufacturing. In response, Duty's group is working with ORNL neutron scientists at both the Spallation Neutron Source and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, using the unique ability of neutrons to look inside materials without damaging them. 

"The neutron source can bring a new way of inspecting these materials, optimizing them and reducing residual stress in these components," Duty says. "There's no other way to nondestructively evaluate those kinds of systems." 

Supercomputing is also helpful when Duty and his colleagues look at structural issues associated with additive manufacturing. He has been working in this area with Sreekanth Pannala of ORNL's Computer Science and Mathematics Division. 

"When you're trying to model a weld beam or weld line, it's very complex," Duty says. "You've got thermal issues. You've got microstructural issues. You've got a moving interface. You've got the phase change of materials from liquid to solid. 

"It's a pretty complicated system, and that's just for one weld beam line across a material. In a cubic inch in the Arcam electron beam technology, we've got five miles of weld line," Duty says.