Veranstaltungen & Messen - vdma.org

2D color copiers have been working fully automatically for decades. We are used to simply placing a sheet of paper or a stack of sheets in a copier, pressing a button and receiving a high-quality color copy that is almost indistinguishable from the original. For 3-dimensional color copies, a quasi-fully automatic process did not exist until now. The presentation introduces the technology with which 3D objects of any shape can be "copied" (almost) as easily as 2-dimensional objects. Applications can be found in various markets, e.g. in healthcare (3D-printed prosthetic eyes), in cultural heritage (replicas of antique busts) and in entertainment (game figures and characters for stop-motion films).

In a first step, the technology automatically captures the 3D shape and spatially varying material properties. For this purpose, a robot-supported 3D capture system is automatically positioned and oriented so that the surface of the object is captured completely with the desired accuracy - no teaching of the robot is necessary. Autonomous capture can also be used without output to a 3D printer for 3D capture applications (2D scanning). Intelligent algorithms optimize the number and perspective of images captured of the physical 3D object to digitally recreate its shape with up to 10 microns resolution(https://s.fhg.de/CultArm3D). Visualization tools make the accuracy of the shape and material reconstruction clear(https://s.fhg.de/FormNext24).

The shape and color of the scanned object is output on multi-material 3D color printers with a high degree of accuracy using patented algorithms. Knowledge about human color perception is used to arrange the primary colors available on the 3D color printer in space in such a way that the visual quality is optimal. These algorithms are implemented in Cuttlefish(https://www.cuttlefish.de/) and also include optimizations for geometric details, e.g. the reduction of staircase effects in the printout.

The talk will provide insights into the motivation and creation of this technology, its availability, the tools created to validate it, use cases from different domains and the benefits for users.
about the speaker:
André Stork is industry manager at Fraunhofer IGD and professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He studied computer science and received his doctorate from TU Darmstadt in 2000. From 1994 to 2023, he worked in the Interactive Engineering Technologies department, first as a research assistant and since 2002 as head of department. During this time, the department carried out around 200 R&D projects funded by industry or the public sector. The companies cover a wide range of market sectors, e.g. automotive, manufacturing, software providers, education, etc. In 2023, he took on the role of Automotive Sector Manager at Fraunhofer IGD. In this role, he represents and coordinates seven R&D departments. His main research interests are interaction, simulation, scientific visualization and geometry processing, incl. 3D printing.