TY - CONF A1 - Kolsch, Nico A1 - Meyer, Lena A1 - Zocca, Andrea A1 - Wilbig, Janka A1 - Günster, Jens T1 - Enabling online quality control of powder deposition for 3d printing in microgravity N2 - 3D printing or additive manufacturing in space is of great value for long-term human spaceflight missions and space stations, conveniently offering access to a ‘virtual warehouse’ of tools and spare parts on the push of a button. The process only needs one type of feedstock such as powder or filament and only as much material as the final part requires, giving it a huge weight benefit over traditional subtractive methods. While 3D printers are already operational on the ISS since 2014, the utilized processes are only capable of manufacturing relatively low strength parts from polymers not suitable for many tools or critical components. To gain access to high quality metal prints, a modified Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process was developed to stabilize the critical powder bed in microgravity through a gas flow [2]. This setup was able to generate a (miniature) steel wrench during parabolic flights, but a reliable layer deposition has raised challenges due to the combination of gas flow parameters with microgravity conditions. Furthermore, the quality and density of the powder bed, which is critical for the process, cannot be examined afterward on the ground. This is due to hyper gravity phases during the flight that are influencing the properties of the powder bed. In this paper, the challenges of the layer deposition are revised, and the subsequent evolution of the recoating system explained. Later, the challenges of an in-situ quality control, evaluation, and quantification of the properties of the powder bed are examined. As a solution, a high-resolution line-scanner is proposed and its implementation int the compact LPBF system demonstrated. Its ability to measure common defects such as ridges in the deposited layer is shown in experiments at normal gravity. As an illustration, Figure 1 shows an extreme case of the formation of ridges. T2 - European Conference on Spacecraft Structures Materials and Environmental Testing CY - Toulouse, France DA - 28.03.2023 KW - Additive manufacturing KW - In-space manufacturing KW - Online quality control KW - Microgravity KW - Powder deposition PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57249 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -