The TD3D research record
Permanent, canonical experiment records — how we test, measure, and validate our own manufacturing processes. Published as-is, including runs that didn't go as planned.
Gradient Direction Persists Through Coupon Rotation — Evidence for a Machine-Frame Effect
LAB-0007 tested whether the spatial color gradient observed in LAB-0006 rotated with the coupon or remained aligned to the laser's machine frame. Three grids were processed on one physical coupon at 0°, 90°, and 180° orientations. The measured gradient direction remained broadly aligned across all three orientations instead of rotating with the coupon, which is more consistent with a machine-frame-bound effect. However, the gradient magnitude was approximately 5–10 times weaker than in LAB-0006, only one grid was processed at each orientation, and the specific machine-side mechanism remains unresolved. The result is therefore reported with medium confidence.
Identical-Recipe Color Drift Reproduced — Spatial Position, Not Burn Order
A controlled reproduction of LAB-0004's identical-recipe color variation showed that measured color tracked each cell's position across the coupon far more strongly than the order the cells were fired in. The non-uniformity reproduced clearly, but LAB-0004's leading explanation — thermal accumulation building with burn order — was not supported in this run. Whether the underlying cause is coupon-side (tilt or focus) or machine-side (scan-field behavior) remains unresolved.
Thermal & Burn-Order Characterization: A Non-Replication
Testing whether a cooling pause between burns (dwell) reduces the color drift observed in our previous validation run. The measurement chain performed excellently, and the paused arm did show less drift than the back-to-back arm — but the effect is inseparable from the fact that each arm was burned on a different physical coupon, and the original drift this lab set out to explain did not reproduce at all under the same recipe.
Burn Sequence Validation: Identical Recipes, Different Measured Colors
Validating the measurement chain while investigating unexpected color variation observed during sequential laser processing. Five identically burned control cells produced measured colors far outside our agreement threshold — a pattern the data is consistent with linking to burn order, though this hasn't been isolated from other explanations.
Validating the Color-Measurement Intake Pipeline
We ran a 24-cell laser test grid through our full research intake pipeline — design, burn, photograph, Nix Spectro 2 scan, and audit. The workflow completed cleanly end to end, but the resulting measurements didn't meet our own validation standard, so no color data from this run was published as verified. This page documents exactly why, and what a passing run requires.