TY - JOUR A1 - Reindl, Thomas A1 - Meisner, Dennis A1 - Hierl, Stefan T1 - Benchmarking of plastic-based Additive Manufacturing Processes JF - RTejournal - Forum für Rapid Technologie N2 - Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a future-oriented manufacturing technology that is experiencing an enormous boom in the times of Industry 4.0. As a result, various AM technologies and printer models from different manufacturers are entering the market over a short time span. With the advancing establishment of this manufacturing technology for series applications, the expectations and requirements of the fabricated components are also increasing. However, a major challenge is the application-specific selection of the most suitable AM process due to a lack of comparable data. Furthermore, there needs to be more know-how regarding the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of AM parts. This paper addresses this problem by comparing the three most common plasticbased AM processes in the areas of surface quality, dimensional accuracy, and mechanical properties. Roughness measurements, evaluation of a benchmark artifact, tensile tests, and load increase tests are carried out. Based on the results, the individual possibilities and limitations of the compared AM processes can be detected. KW - Additive Manufacturing KW - benchmark artifact KW - dimensional accuracy KW - Fused Layer Modeling KW - mechanical properties KW - Multi Jet Fusion KW - process benchmark KW - Selective Laser Sintering KW - surface quality Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.58134/fh-aachen-rte_2023_002 PB - Fachhochschule Aachen ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Maiwald, Frederik A1 - Kroth, Lea A1 - Laskin, Alexander A1 - Hierl, Stefan A1 - Schmidt, Michael T1 - Enlarging the process window in absorber-free laser transmission welding of polymer foils using tailored laser intensity distribution T2 - Procedia CIRP N2 - Absorber-free laser transmission welding enables precise and clean joining of polymer foils without absorbent additives or adhesives. It is well suited for applications in medical technology and food industry, which impose high demands on process reliability. To achieve a large process window and thus a reliable process, a homogeneous weld seam temperature is desirable. For this purpose, the intensity distribution of the laser beam is adapted locally by refractive beam shaping optics. Using a donut-shaped intensity distribution, the weld seam temperature is homogenized. Thus, the process window for welding polypropylene or polyethylene foils is enlarged up to a factor of 4 compared to a conventional, Gaussian-shaped distribution. This enables the reliable welding of even 85 µm thin foils, which could only be welded to a limited extent with a conventional laser intensity distribution. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2024.08.159 N1 - accepted by publisher VL - 124 SP - 489 EP - 493 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - PAT A1 - Maiwald, Frederik A1 - Hierl, Stefan T1 - Laser welding device for clamping and welding components and method for clamping and welding components Y1 - 2023 UR - https://data.epo.org/publication-server/rest/v1.0/publication-dates/20230830/patents/EP4234213NWA1/document.pdf ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Maiwald, Frederik A1 - Fries, Fabian A1 - Schulze, Julian A1 - Honnerová, Petra A1 - Hierl, Stefan A1 - Schmidt, Michael T1 - Optical coherence tomography for in situ weld seam monitoring in absorber-free laser transmission welding T2 - Laser Applications in Microelectronic and Optoelectronic Manufacturing (LAMOM) XXX, 25-31 January 2025, San Francisco, California, United States N2 - Optical and medical devices are frequently made of polymers and place high demands on precision, cleanliness, and reliability of the manufacturing processes used. Absorber-free laser transmission welding is well-suited for joining these devices: the energy input is contactless, no adhesives, additives, or absorbers are required, and the fiber lasers used enable precise weld seams. As the weld seam geometry is decisive for the joint strength and thus crucial for the quality of the product, the welding process is monitored in-situ using Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). Subsequently, the weld seam geometry is identified automatically using the AI model "Segment Anything" (SAM), which performs semantic segmentation of the OCT data without requiring any training from the user. Welding tests using polyamide six indicate that the seam size is measured with an accuracy of a few hundredths of a millimeter, showing excellent agreement with microscopic images of microtome sections. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3040607 PB - SPIE ER -