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Digital twins (DTs) are an emerging capability in additive manufacturing (AM), set to revolutionize design optimization, inspection, in situ monitoring, and root cause analysis. AM DTs typically incorporate multimodal data streams, ranging from machine toolpaths and in-process imaging to X-ray CT scans and performance metrics. Despite the evolution of DT platforms, challenges remain in effectively inspecting them for actionable insights, either individually or in a multidisciplinary team setting. Quality assurance, manufacturing departments, pilot labs, and plant operations must collaborate closely to reliably produce parts at scale. This is particularly crucial in AM where complex structures require a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach. Additionally, the large-scale data originating from different modalities and their inherent 3D nature pose significant hurdles for traditional 2D desktop-based inspection methods. To address these challenges and increase the value proposition of DTs, we introduce a novel virtual reality (VR) framework to facilitate collaborative and real-time inspection of DTs in AM. This framework includes advanced features for intuitive alignment and visualization of multimodal data, visual occlusion management, streaming large-scale volumetric data, and collaborative tools, substantially improving the inspection of AM components and processes to fully exploit the potential of DTs in AM., Comment: 10 Pages, 6 Figures

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been used to enhance the design and fabrication of complex components for various applications in the medical, aerospace, energy, and consumer products industries. A defining feature for many AM parts is the complex internal geometry enabled by the printing process. However, inspecting these internal structures requires volumetric imaging, i.e., X-ray CT, leading to the well-known challenge of visualizing complex 3D geometries using 2D desktop interfaces. Furthermore, existing tools are limited to single-user systems making it difficult to jointly discuss or share findings with a larger team, i.e., the designers, manufacturing experts, and evaluation team. In this work, we present a collaborative virtual reality (VR) for the exploration and inspection of AM parts. Geographically separated experts can virtually inspect and jointly discuss data. It also supports VR and non-VR users, who can be spectators in the VR environment. Various features for data exploration and inspection are developed and enhanced via real-time synchronization. We followed usability and interface verification guidelines using Nielsen's heuristics approach. Furthermore, we conducted exploratory and semi-structured interviews with domain experts to collect qualitative feedback. Results reveal potential benefits, applicability, and current limitations. The proposed collaborative VR environment provides a new basis and opens new research directions for virtual inspection and team collaboration in AM settings., Comment: Conditionally Accepted - CHI LBW 2024