In-situ integration of piezoelectric stacks with laser-based powder bed fusion

Powder bed fusion is a layer-wise manufacturing technique and emerging technology capable of manufacturing highly customized and complex shapes. Due to the layerwise process characteristic, powder bed fusion has high potential to enable access to each cross section during the manufacturing process. Thus, the integration of 3-dimensional objects can be performed at locations where access is not possible after part production anymore. Thermal shrinkage can be exploited to apply pre-stress on these components. Especially piezoelectric stacks need to be pre-stressed and can be used for a wide range of applications, which is the reason the integration of these types of sensors and actuators is investigated. Piezoelectric stacks need to be pre-stressed, which can be done in-situ during manufacturing eliminating additional pre-stress elements. This study contributes to the understanding of the pre-stress mechanism with in-situ measurements. Furthermore, the tolerances of prefabricated top caps needed for this manufacturing technique is investigated.