Additive manufacturing processes, particularly Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion of Metals (PBF-LB/M), enable the development of new application possibilities due to their manufacturing-specific freedom of design. These new fields of application require a high degree of component quality, especially in safety-relevant areas. This is currently ensured primarily via a considerable amount of downstream quality control. Suitable process monitoring systems promise to reduce this effort drastically. This paper introduces a novel monitoring method in order to gain process-specific thermal information during the manufacturing process. The Synchronized Path Infrared Thermography (SPIT) method is based on two synchronized galvanometer scanners allowing high-speed and high-resolution observations of the melt pool in the SWIR range. One scanner is used to steer the laser over the building platform, while the second scanner guides the field of view of an IR camera. With this setup, the melting process is observed at different laser powers, scan speeds and at different locations with respect to the laser position, in order to demonstrate the positioning accuracy of the system and to initially gain thermal process data of the melt pool and the heat-affected zone. Therefore, the SPIT system shows a speed independent overall accuracy of ±2 Pixel within the evaluated range. The system further allows detailed thermal observation of the melt pool and the surrounding heat-affected zone.
Keywords: PBF-LB/M; SPIT; SWIR; additive manufacturing; galvanometer scanner; melt pool; process monitoring.