Thermal Based Process Monitoring for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a frequently used manufacturing process due to its advantages in lightweight construction, design possibilities and functionalization of geometry. However, the printed parts will often have to undergo time and cost expensive non-destructive testing by sophisticated methods like X-CT. Thus, there is a strong demand to identify suitable online process monitoring techniques that allow to reduce or substitute post-process NDT effort. The temperature field reacts sensitively to deviations during processing, thus online temperature monitoring is a promising approach. In the present work a spatially resolved temperature measurement, based on 2-channel-pyrometry, is used for process monitoring in LPBF. The camera system is coaxially integrated into the beam guidance of the LPBF system. The coaxial observation enables a lateral resolution better than 10 μm over the whole build-up area of 250 x 250 mm2. Single tracks were welded with different parameters and observed by the camera system to identify thermal indicators. Metallographic cross-sections of the tracks were compared with the melt pool width measured by the online observation system. The deviation was ca. 3 %. In addition, cubes of 10 mm by 10 mm by 10 mm are built up. The melt pool area is identified as useful indicator for the process behavior and for the first time the assessment of part density is demonstrated in LPBF during process by the help of a thermal monitoring system.