What If You Could Spot a Flaw Before It Happens? Transforming AM with Real-Time Defect Detection

What If You Could Spot a Flaw Before It Happens?

The Gamble of Traditional Quality Assurance

Waiting until an additive-manufactured part is complete to uncover a defect isn’t quality control - it’s a gamble. In high-stakes industries like aerospace and medical, where regulatory standards are unforgiving, discovering a flaw post-build can mean costly rework, delayed certification, and a dented reputation. That reactive approach not only slows adoption of AM for mission-critical parts but also amplifies overhead and risk.

Process Monitoring: Shifting from Reaction to Prevention

To sidestep those pitfalls, modern AM workflows are shifting left - towards real-time, in-situ monitoring. Techniques like optical tomography and layer-by-layer validation - used in industries demanding extreme confidence - provide continuous oversight during the build process. Integrating thermal, acoustic, and optical sensing into a cohesive feedback loop allows for early detection and prevention of anomalies. For example, advanced systems can detect subsurface defects around 100 µm or monitor geometric and thermal variances as they happen

👉 Why AM Compliance Is So Hard - and How to Simplify It

Yet, implementing such systems manually and integrating them into existing digital infrastructures is prohibitively complex. This is where Additive MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) step in.

Additive MES: The Engine of Real-Time Control

Additive MES platforms unify and automate real-time process monitoring, data capture, and quality oversight. With functionalities including:

• Live defect detection and alarms, enabling early intervention

• Automated inspection via sensors and IoT, reducing reliance on manual checks

• Seamless integration across MES, QMS, and material genealogy systems, ensuring traceable workflows and audit-ready

👉 Understanding Additive MES: A Beginner's Guide

These capabilities transform quality control from a post-build headache into an integrated, digitised assurance mechanism.

Digital Thread & Traceability: Building Confidence Alongside Parts

A robust digital infrastructure captures every material batch, design version, machine event, and sensor reading - creating a digital thread that tracks the part's journey from design through certification. This level of traceability is a compliance imperative, reducing documentation burdens and delivering audit-ready transparency without manual effort.

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In fact, clients using digital thread workflows have slashed documentation prep times by over 70% and expedited certification timelines by weeks.

Efficiency Boosts: More Reliable, Faster, Smarter

Combining real-time monitoring, process automation, and traceability also enhances operational efficiency:

• Reduced downtime and maintenance delays, thanks to predictive monitoring

• Early error detection, dramatically cutting rework rates

• Optimised resource use and scheduling, driven by real-time insights

These gains not only improve throughput and quality—but also make AM a more scalable and dependable industrial solution.

Bringing It All Together

CHALLENGE	IMPACT	SOLUTION VIA REAL-TIME MONITORING + ADDITIVE MES
Post-build flaw detection	Waste, rework, delayed certifications	Early detection and automatic correction
Manual compliance audits	High overhead, slow workflows	Automated traceability and documentation
Static, siloed systems	Limited insight, inefficiencies	Integrated dashboards and decision workflows
Variable part quality	Inconsistent outcomes, risk exposure	Continuous quality control and data-driven decisions

Ready to leave the gamble behind?

Discover how Authentise empowers real-time process control, integrates quality data at every step, and transforms AM into a reliable, audit-ready, and efficient production method.

Book a live demo today to see how you can catch defects before they happen.

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