Layerwise monitoring has become an area of interest in the field of additive
manufacturing because of potential to further enable part qualification during every stage of
fabrication. Spatial monitoring and qualification during part fabrication has never before been
possible with traditional manufacturing processes such as milling or casting. An IR camera has
been externally annexed atop an EBM system to obtain layerwise thermographs throughout the
fabrication process. This paper demonstrates a process to compare each layer of fabrication using
automatically acquired thermal images to the corresponding CAD file for each fabricated object.
Two different methods of image analysis for part detection were compared (analysis on the basis
of color and analysis by edge detection). Detection allowed the quantification of processing
information (average temperature and surface anomalies) and geometric information (surface
area and perimeter). A percent error of the compared surface area was found to range from 5%-
17%, and automatically acquired temperature measurements were within 7.8K of the recorded
thermograph. The methods presented in this research showcase the beginning steps of integrated
metrology in advanced manufacturing systems and automatic monitoring of per-part thermal
behavior and part quality.Mechanical Engineerin
