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Additive Manufacturing provides the opportunity to fabricate components of nearly limitless complexity compared to that of traditional manufacturing techniques. However, thermal gyrations imparted into the material from the passing of the heat source cause challenges in fabricating complex structures with the proper process parameters. While the thermal history of the material can be simulated, validating the simulations requires access to thermal data generated through in-situ process monitoring. While generation of in-situ thermal data seems trivial, acquiring and developing reliable calibrations for metallic materials is difficult due to the physical state of the material transitioning from powder to liquid to a solid. To be discussed is the methodology taken to integrate IR in-situ process monitoring within the electron beam melting process and the approach developed to accurately correlate a materials emissivity to temperature during the build process. Further the wealth of information contained within the thermal data will be discussed in the context of understanding of microstructural evolutions within the material during the build process, identification of material defects, and ability to determining the similarity/repeatability of builds fabricated with identical processing parameters as based only on the thermal signature of the build.

High performance mid-wave infrared (IR) cameras are used for in-situ electron beam melt process monitoring and temperature measurements. Since standard factory calibrations are insufficient due to very low transmissions of the leaded glass window required for X-ray absorption, two techniques for temperature calibrations are compared. In-situ measurement of emittance will also be discussed. Ultimately, these imaging systems have the potential for routine use for online quality assurance and feedback control.

Both mid-wave and long-wave IR cameras are used to measure various temperature profiles in thermoplastic parts as they are printed. Two significantly different 3D-printers are used in this study. The first is a small scale commercially available Solidoodle 3 printer, which prints parts with layer thicknesses on the order of 125μm. The second printer used is a “Big Area Additive Manufacturing” (BAAM) 3D-printer developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The BAAM prints parts with a layer thicknesses of 4.06 mm. Of particular interest is the temperature of the previously deposited layer as the new hot layer is about to be extruded onto it. The two layers are expected have a stronger bond if the temperature of the substrate layer is above the glass transition temperature. This paper describes the measurement technique and results for a study of temperature decay and substrate layer temperature for ABS thermoplastic with and without the addition of chopped carbon fibers.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been utilizing the ARCAM electron beam melting technology to additively manufacture complex geometric structures directly from powder. Although the technology has demonstrated the ability to decrease costs, decrease manufacturing lead-time and fabricate complex structures that are impossible to fabricate through conventional processing techniques, certification of the component quality can be challenging. Because the process involves the continuous deposition of successive layers of material, each layer can be examined without destructively testing the component. However, in-situ process monitoring is difficult due to metallization on inside surfaces caused by evaporation and condensation of metal from the melt pool. This work describes a solution to one of the challenges to continuously imaging inside of the chamber during the EBM process. Here, the utilization of a continuously moving Mylar film canister is described. Results will be presented related to in-situ process monitoring and how this technique results in improved mechanical properties and reliability of the process.

An extended-range IR camera was used to make temperature measurements of samples as they are being manufactured. The objective is to quantify the temperature variation of the parts as they are being fabricated. The IR camera was also used to map the temperature within the build volume of the oven. The development of the temperature map of the oven provides insight into the global temperature variation within the oven that may lead to understanding variations in the properties of parts as a function of build location within the oven. The observation of the temperature variation of a part during construction provides insight into how the deposition process itself creates temperature distributions, which can lead to failure.

An infrared microscope was used to study the surface temperature profiles of power transistor arrays in integrated circuits (IC) during operation. Each transistor array was set to conduct current for 20-50 microseconds. The integration time of the IR camera is adjusted to be between 2 and 10 microseconds. A thorough study of the camera's timing characteristics allows its precise synchronization to transient thermal events in the transistor arrays. Progressively adding incremental delay times to the synchronization pulses allows the complete characterization of the thermal transients as a function of time and location. The IR microscope timing characteristics were determined by imaging an incandescent lamp filament during pulsed operation. Examples of heat pulses in a lamp filament and power transistors are given.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Wear of coated surfaces tends to progress through a series of stages in which damage accumulates until the coating fails to protect its substrate. Depending on the coating system and the contact conditions, these stages can sometimes be detected as a series of discrete periods of changing frictional behavior, or they can occur quite rapidly, leading to rapid removal of the coating. A new technique has been developed to capture magnified infrared (IR) images of a selected location on a moving wear surface and to synchronize these cycle-by-cycle images with the instantaneous friction force that occurs at the same location. A pin-on-disk tribometer has been used to demonstrate the principle, but other kinds of test geometries can also be used. Contrast in the IR images derives not only from the surface temperatures but also from the emissivity of surface features. A spatial calibration of the system allows the measurement of the width of the wear path as a function of time. By studying a series of captured and friction- synchronized images, it is possible to observe the detailed progression of wear and the corresponding frictional transitions in a limitless variety of materials. Examples of several different materials, including, steel, aluminum, brass, and paint, will be used to illustrate the application of time-resolved microscopic tribo-thermography to coatings research.

Automotive brake systems are energy conversion devices that convert kinetic energy into heat energy. Several mechanisms, mostly related to noise and vibration problems, can occur during brake operation and are often related to non-uniform temperature distribution on the brake disk. These problems are of significant cost to the industry and are a quality concern to automotive companies and brake system vendors. One such problem is thermo-elastic instabilities in brake system. During the occurrence of these instabilities several localized hot spots will form around the circumferential direction of the brake disk. The temperature distribution and the time dependence of these hot spots, a critical factor in analyzing this problem and in developing a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon, were recorded. Other modes of non-uniform temperature distributions which include hot banding and extreme localized heating were also observed. All of these modes of non-uniform temperature distributions were observed on automotive brake systems using a high speed IR camera operating in snap-shot mode. The camera was synchronized with the rotation of the brake disk so that the time evolution of hot regions could be studied. This paper discusses the experimental approach in detail.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.