Laser powder bed additive manufacturing: A review on the four drivers for an online control

Online control of Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes appears to be the next challenge in the transition toward Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Although many efforts have been dedicated by industry and research in the last decades, there remains substantial room for improvement. Additionally, the existing scientific literature lacks a wide-ranging identification and classification of the primary drivers that enable online control of AM processes. This article focuses on online control of one of the most industrially widespread AM processes: metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), with particular emphasis on two subcategories, namely Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Through a systematic literature review, this article initially identified over 200 manuscripts. The search was conducted utilizing a defined research query within the Scopus database, double checked on Scholar. The results were refined through multiple phases of inclusion/exclusion criteria, culminating in the selection of 95 pertinent papers. This article aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive review of four identified drivers i) Online controllable input parameters, ii) Online observable output signatures, iii) Online sensing techniques, iv) Online feedback strategies, adopted from the general Deming control loop Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). Ultimately, this article delves into the challenges and prospects inherent in the online control of metal L-PBF

In-situ crack and keyhole pore detection in laser directed energy deposition through acoustic signal and deep learning

Cracks and keyhole pores are detrimental defects in alloys produced by laser directed energy deposition (LDED). Laser-material interaction sound may hold information about underlying complex physical events such as crack propagation and pores formation. However, due to the noisy environment and intricate signal content, acoustic-based monitoring in LDED has received little attention. This paper proposes a novel acoustic-based in-situ defect detection strategy in LDED. The key contribution of this study is to develop an in-situ acoustic signal denoising, feature extraction, and sound classification pipeline that incorporates convolutional neural networks (CNN) for online defect prediction. Microscope images are used to identify locations of the cracks and keyhole pores within a part. The defect locations are spatiotemporally registered with acoustic signal. Various acoustic features corresponding to defect-free regions, cracks, and keyhole pores are extracted and analysed in time-domain, frequency-domain, and time-frequency representations. The CNN model is trained to predict defect occurrences using the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) of the lasermaterial interaction sound. The CNN model is compared to various classic machine learning models trained on the denoised acoustic dataset and raw acoustic dataset. The validation results shows that the CNN model trained on the denoised dataset outperforms others with the highest overall accuracy (89%), keyhole pore prediction accuracy (93%), and AUC-ROC score (98%). Furthermore, the trained CNN model can be deployed into an in-house developed software platform for online quality monitoring. The proposed strategy is the first study to use acoustic signals with deep learning for insitu defect detection in LDED process.Comment: 36 Pages, 16 Figures, accepted at journal Additive Manufacturin

Powder bed monitoring via digital image analysis in additive manufacturing

Due to the nature of Selective Laser Melting process, the built parts suffer from high chances of defects formation. Powders quality have a significant impact on the final attributes of SLM-manufactured items. From a processing standpoint, it is critical to ensure proper powder distribution and compaction in each layer of the powder bed, which is impacted by particle size distribution, packing density, flowability, and sphericity of the powder particles. Layer-by-layer study of the process can provide better understanding of the effect of powder bed on the final part quality. Image-based processing technique could be used to examine the quality of parts fabricated by Selective Laser Melting through layerwise monitoring and to evaluate the results achieved by other techniques. In this paper, a not supervised methodology based on Digital Image Processing through the build-inmachine camera is proposed. Since the limitation of the optical system in terms of resolution, positioning, lighting, field-of-view, many efforts were paid to the calibration and to the data processing. Its capability to individuate possible defects on SLM parts was evaluated by a Computer Tomography results verification

Additive Manufacturing (AM) of Metallic Alloys

The introduction of metal AM processes in such industrial sectors as the aerospace, automotive, defense, jewelry, medical and tool-making fields, has led to a significant reduction in waste material and in the lead times of the components, innovative designs with higher strength, lower weight, and fewer potential failure points from joining features. This Special Issue on “Additive Manufacturing (AM) of Metallic Alloys” contains a mixture of review articles and original contributions on some problems that limit the wider uptake and exploitation of metals in AM

In-situ sensing, process monitoring and machine control in Laser Powder Bed Fusion: a review

Process monitoring and sensing is widely used across many industries for quality assurance, and for increasing machine uptime and reliability. Though still in the emergent stages, process monitoring is beginning to see strong adoption in the additive manufacturing community through the use of process sensors recording a wide range of optical, acoustic and thermal signals. The ability to acquire these signals in a holistic manner, coupled with intelligence-based machine control has the potential to make additive manufacturing a robust and competitive alternative to conventional fabrication techniques. This paper presents an overview of the state-of the art of in-situ process monitoring in laser powder bed fusion processes and highlights some current limitations and areas for advancement. Also presented is an overview of real-time process control requirements, which when combined with the emergent process monitoring tools, will eventually allow for in-depth process control of the powder bed fusion process, which is essential for wide-scale industrial credibility and adoption of this technology

SMART ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING: IN-PROCESS SENSING AND DATA ANALYTICS FOR ONLINE DEFECT DETECTION IN METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

The goal of this dissertation is to detect the incipient flaws in metal parts made using additive manufacturing processes (3D printing). The key idea is to embed sensors inside a 3D printing machine and conclude whether there are defects in the part as it is being built by analyzing the sensor data using artificial intelligence (machine learning). This is an important area of research, because, despite their revolutionary potential, additive manufacturing processes are yet to find wider acceptance in safety-critical industries, such as aerospace and biomedical, given their propensity to form defects. The presence of defects, such as porosity, can afflict as much as 20% of additive manufactured parts. This poor process consistency necessitates an approach wherein flaws are not only detected but also promptly corrected inside the machine. This dissertation takes the critical step in addressing the first of the above, i.e., detection of flaws using in-process sensor signatures. Accordingly, the objective of this work is to develop and apply a new class of machine learning algorithms motivated from the domain of spectral graph theory to analyze the in-process sensor data, and subsequently, detect the formation of part defects. Defects in additive manufacturing originate due to four main reasons, namely, material, process parameters, part design, and machine kinematics. In this work, the efficacy of the graph theoretic approach is determined to detect defects that occur in all the above four contexts. As an example, in Chapter 4, flaws such as lack-of-fusion porosity due to poor choice of process parameters in additive manufacturing are identified with statistical accuracy exceeding 80%. As a comparison, the accuracy of existing conventional statistical methods is less than 65%. Advisor: Prahalada Ra

SMART ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING: IN-PROCESS SENSING AND DATA ANALYTICS FOR ONLINE DEFECT DETECTION IN METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

The goal of this dissertation is to detect the incipient flaws in metal parts made using additive manufacturing processes (3D printing). The key idea is to embed sensors inside a 3D printing machine and conclude whether there are defects in the part as it is being built by analyzing the sensor data using artificial intelligence (machine learning). This is an important area of research, because, despite their revolutionary potential, additive manufacturing processes are yet to find wider acceptance in safety-critical industries, such as aerospace and biomedical, given their propensity to form defects. The presence of defects, such as porosity, can afflict as much as 20% of additive manufactured parts. This poor process consistency necessitates an approach wherein flaws are not only detected but also promptly corrected inside the machine. This dissertation takes the critical step in addressing the first of the above, i.e., detection of flaws using in-process sensor signatures. Accordingly, the objective of this work is to develop and apply a new class of machine learning algorithms motivated from the domain of spectral graph theory to analyze the in-process sensor data, and subsequently, detect the formation of part defects. Defects in additive manufacturing originate due to four main reasons, namely, material, process parameters, part design, and machine kinematics. In this work, the efficacy of the graph theoretic approach is determined to detect defects that occur in all the above four contexts. As an example, in Chapter 4, flaws such as lack-of-fusion porosity due to poor choice of process parameters in additive manufacturing are identified with statistical accuracy exceeding 80%. As a comparison, the accuracy of existing conventional statistical methods is less than 65%. Advisor: Prahalada Ra

Multi-view fringe projection system for surface topography measurement during metal powder bed fusion

Metal powder bed fusion (PBF) methods need in-process measurement methods to increase user confidence and encourage further adoption in high-value manufacturing sectors. In this paper, a novel measurement method for PBF systems is proposed that uses multi-view fringe projection to acquire high-resolution surface topography information of the powder bed. Measurements were made using a mock-up of a commercial PBF system to assess the system’s accuracy and precision in comparison to conventional single-view fringe projection techniques for the same application. Results show that the multi-view system is more accurate, but less precise, than single view fringe projection on a point-by-point basis. The multi-view system also achieves a high degree of surface coverage by using alternate views to access areas not measured by a single camera

Nondestructive evaluation and in-situ monitoring for metal additive manufacturing

Powder-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are seeing increased use, particularly because they give greatly enhanced design flexibility and can be used to form components that cannot be formed using subtractive manufacturing. There are fundamental differences in the morphology of additively manufactured materials, when compared with, for example castings or forgings. In all cases it is necessary to ensure that parts meet required quality standards and that “allowable” anomalies can be detected and characterized. It is necessary to understanding the various types of manufacturing defects and their potential effects on the quality and performance of AM, and this is a topic of much study. In addition, it is necessary to investigate quality from powder throughout the manufacturing process from powder to the finished part. In doing so it is essential to have metrology tools for mechanical property evaluation and for appropriate anomaly detection, quality control, and monitoring. Knowledge of how and when the various types of defects appear will increase the potential for early detection of significant flaws in additively manufactured parts and offers the potential opportunity for in-process intervention and to hence decrease the time and cost of repair or rework. Because the AM process involves incremental deposition of material, it gives unique opportunities to investigate the material quality as it is deposited. Due to the AM processes sensitivity to different factors such as laser power and material properties, any changes in aspects of the process can potentially have an impact on the part quality. As a result, in-process monitoring of additive manufacturing (AM) is crucial to assure the quality, integrity, and safety of AM parts. To meet this need there are a variety of sensing methods and signals which can be measured. Among the available measurement modalities, acoustic-based methods have the advantage of potentially providing real-time, continuous in-service monitoring of manufacturing processes at relatively low cost. In this research, the various types of microstructural features or defects, their generation mechanisms, their effect on bulk properties and the capabilities of existing characterization methodologies for powder-based AM parts are discussed and methods for in-situ non-destructive evaluation are reviewed. A proof-of-concept demonstration for acoustic measurements used for monitoring both machine and material state is demonstrated. The analyses have been performed on temporal and spectral features extracted from the acoustic signals. These features are commonly related to defect formation, and acoustic noise that is generated and can potentially characterize the process. A novel application of signal processing tools is used for identification of temporal and spectral features in the acoustic signals. A new approach for a K-means statistical classification algorithm is used for classification of different process conditions, and quantitative evaluation of the classification performance in terms of cohesion and isolation of the clusters. The identified acoustic signatures demonstrate potential for in-situ monitoring and quality control of the additive manufacturing process and parts. A numerical model of the temperature field and the ultrasonic wave displacement field induced by an incident pulsed laser on additively manufactured stainless steel 17 4 PH is established which is based on thermoelastic theory. The numerical results indicate that the thermoelastic source and the ultrasonic wave features are strongly affected by the characteristics of the laser source and the thermal and mechanical properties of the material. The magnitude and temporal-spatial distributions of the pulsed laser source energy are very important factors which determine not only the wave generation mechanisms, but also the amplitude and characteristics of the resulting elastic wave signals