Comprehensive Optical Monitoring of Selective Laser Melting

The absence of on-line monitoring and process quality assurance is one of the main obstacles for wide implementation of Selective Laser Melting technology in modern manufacturing industry. Temperature monitoring in the laser impact zone are carried out by an originally developed bicolour pyrometer and CCD camera which are integrated with the optical scanning system of the PHENIX PM-100 machine. Experiments are performed with variation of basic process parameters such as powder layer thickness (0-120 m), hatch distance (60 m-1000 m), and fabrication strategy (the so-called "one-zone" and "two-zone").