TY - JOUR A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Sauer, Christian A1 - Schiffler, Andreas A1 - Hartmann, Jürgen T1 - Process Monitoring Using Synchronized Path Infrared Thermography in PBF-LB/M JF - Sensors N2 - 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. KW - SPIT KW - PBF-LB/M KW - additive manufacturing KW - process monitoring KW - SWIR KW - melt pool KW - galvanometer scanner Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22165943 VL - 22 IS - 16 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drenkard, Hannah A1 - Fischer, Christian A1 - Sauer, Veit A1 - Gehlen, Christoph T1 - On the Chloride Distribution in Concrete and Mortar Samples after an RCM Test JF - Materials N2 - It is of essential need to face the challenges of CO2 reduction in industrial cement and concrete production reliable test methods in order to evaluate the performance of concretes, especially with regard to the service life of our infrastructure. The rapid chloride migration test (RCM test) is a standard method to assess the resistance against chloride ingress of concrete. However, during our study, certain critical questions arose with regard to the chloride distribution. The sharp chloride ingress front based on the model assumptions contradicted the shallow gradient of the experimental data. For this reason, investigations on chloride distribution in concrete and mortar samples after RCM tests were performed. The focus was on the factors influencing the extraction, e.g., time after RCM test and the location on sample. Furthermore, differences between concrete and mortar samples were investigated. The investigations showed that no sharp gradient on concrete samples was found due to the extremely uneven chloride front. In contrast, the theoretical profile shape was instead demonstrated on mortar specimens. The prerequisite for this result is that the drill powder must be taken directly after the completion of the RCM test from very uniform penetration areas. Thus, the model assumptions on the chloride distribution via the RCM test could be confirmed. KW - chloride profile; RCM test; drill powder; concrete; mortar; chloride migration coefficient; chloride ingress front Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16082952 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 16 IS - 8 SP - 2952 EP - 2952 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Sauer, Christian A1 - Schiffler, Andreas A1 - Versch, Alexander A1 - Hartmann, Jürgen T1 - Active thermography for in-situ defect detection in laser powder bed fusion of metal JF - Journal of Manufacturing Processes N2 - Additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized production by offering design flexibility, reducing material waste, and enabling intricate geometries that are often unachievable with traditional methods. As the use of AM for metals continues to expand, it is crucial to ensure the quality and integrity of printed components. Defects can compromise the mechanical properties and performance of the final product. Non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques are necessary to detect and characterize anomalies during or post-manufacturing. Active thermography, a thermal imaging technique that uses an external energy source to induce temperature variations, has emerged as a promising tool in this field. This paper explores the potential of in-situ non-destructive testing using the processing laser of a PBF-LB/M setup as an excitation source for active thermography. With this technological approach, artificially generated internal defects underneath an intact surface can be detected down to a defect size of 350 μm – 450 μm. Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:863-opus-57601 SN - 1526-6125 VL - 131 SP - 1758 EP - 1769 PB - Elsevier BV ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Sauer, Christian A1 - Schiffler, Andreas A1 - Manara, Jochen A1 - Hartmann, Jürgen T1 - Pixelwise high-temperature calibration for in-situ temperature measuring in powder bed fusion of metal with laser beam JF - Heliyon N2 - High-temperature calibration methods in additive manufacturing involve the use of advanced techniques to accurately measure and control the temperature of the build material during the additive manufacturing process. Infrared cameras, blackbody radiation sources and non-linear optimization algorithms are used to correlate the temperature of the material with its emitted thermal radiation. This is essential for ensuring the quality and repeatability of the final product. This paper presents the calibration procedure of an imaging system for in-situ measurement of absolute temperatures and temperature gradients during powder bed fusion of metal with laser beam (PBF-LB/M) in the temperature range of 500 K–1500 K. It describes the design of the optical setup to meet specific requirements in this application area as well as the procedure for accounting the various factors influencing the temperature measurement. These include camera-specific effects such as varying spectral sensitivities of the individual pixels of the sensor as well as influences of the exposure time and the exposed sensor area. Furthermore, influences caused by the complex optical path, such as inhomogeneous transmission properties of the galvanometer scanner as well as angle-dependent transmission properties of the f-theta lens were considered. A two-step fitting algorithm based on Planck's law of radiation was applied to best represent the correlation. With the presented procedure the calibrated thermography system provides the ability to measure absolute temperatures under real process conditions with high accuracy. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28989 SN - 2405-8440 VL - 10 IS - 7 PB - Elsevier BV ER - TY - GEN A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Schiffler, Andreas A1 - Hartmann, Jürgen A1 - Sauer, Christian T1 - Dual Scan head approach for in-situ defect detection in laser powder bed fusion of metals - Dataset N2 - This dataset contains thermographic data from a study on in-situ defect detection in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals (PBF-LB/M) process. The data was collected using a novel experimental setup named Synchronized Path Infrared Thermography (SPIT), which employs a dual scan head configuration. One scan head directs the processing laser, while the second scan head positions the measurement field of an infrared (IR) camera. This setup allows for the precise analysis of the cooling behavior of the material decoupled from the immediate laser-material interaction zone. The experiments were conducted on pre-fabricated stainless steel (EOS StainlessSteel PH1, DIN 14540) samples with embedded, cylindrical subsurface defects of varying diameters. A single layer of metal powder was applied to these samples and then fused by the laser. The dataset includes a series of measurements where process parameters, specifically the volumetric energy density and the laser scanning speed, were systematically varied to assess their influence on defect detection reliability. The provided data consists of raw thermographic recordings, which capture the surface temperature distribution in the heat-affected zone behind the melt pool. These recordings can be used to identify localized areas of elevated temperature caused by the insulating effect of the subsurface defects, which impede heat transfer into the substrate. This dataset is valuable for researchers working on process monitoring, defect detection algorithms, and the validation of thermal simulations in additive manufacturing. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15727369 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Sauer, Christian A1 - Schiffler, Andreas A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Hartmann, Jürgen T1 - Temporally Gated Active Thermography for Defect Detection in Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion of Metals - Dataset N2 - This HDF5-dataset contains in-situ high-speed infrared thermography data acquired during the Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M) process. The data was collected using a Synchronized Path Infrared Thermography (SPIT) setup, which employs a dual-scanhead configuration to guide both the processing laser and the thermal camera's field of view. The primary feature of this dataset is the application of a temporally gated acquisition strategy. The infrared camera's integration time (800 µs) was synchronized with a modulated processing laser (500 Hz) to capture thermal data exclusively during the laser-off phases. This method effectively isolates the material's thermal emission from high-intensity laser reflections. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17747278 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmitt, Anna-Maria A1 - Sauer, Christian A1 - Höfflin, Dennis A1 - Schiffler, Andreas T1 - Powder Bed Monitoring Using Semantic Image Segmentation to Detect Failures during 3D Metal Printing JF - Sensors N2 - Monitoring the metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) process is an important task within the scope of quality assurance. This article presents a method to gain insights into process quality by comparing the actual and target layers. Images of the powder bed were captured and segmented using an Xception–style neural network to predict the powder and part areas. The segmentation result of every layer is compared to the reference layer regarding the area, centroids, and normalized area difference of each part. To evaluate the method, a print job with three parts was chosen where one of them broke off and another one had thermal deformations. The calculated metrics are useful for detecting if a part is damaged or for identifying thermal distortions. The method introduced by this work can be used to monitor the metal AM process for quality assurance. Due to the limited camera resolutions and inconsistent lighting conditions, the approach has some limitations, which are discussed at the end. KW - additive manufacturing KW - metal printing KW - neural network KW - semantic segmentation KW - thermal distortion KW - in situ monitoring Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s23094183 VL - 23 IS - 9 SP - 4183 EP - 4183 PB - MDPI ER -