This study presents an approach for in-situ monitoring of laser powder bed fusion. Using standard laser optics, coaxial high-resolution multispectral images of powder beds are acquired in a pre-objective scanning configuration. A continuous overview image of the entire 114 × 114 mm powder bed can be generated, detecting objects down to 20 µm in diameter with a maximum offset of 22–49 µm. Multispectral information is obtained by capturing images at 6 different wavelengths from 405 nm to 850 nm. This allows in-line determination of the absorbance of the powder bed with a maximum deviation of 2.5% compared to the absorbance spectra of established methods. For the qualification of this method, ray tracing simulations on powder surfaces and tests with 20 different powders have been carried out. These included different particle sizes, aged and oxidized powders.

Laser-induced ablation of drops from a metal wire enables the sequential deposition of voxels, for additive manufacturing. Striving for the goal of controlled, reproducible drop transfer, for this new technique, further trends and phenomena have been studied. Different modes of drop growth along with necking have been observed. Rather reproducible was a growing pending drop underneath the wire tip until separation for a certain size. In contrast, initial transients from the laser-induced recoil pressure can lead to a quick separation of a smaller drop. Initiation of a swinging cycle can also cause drop ablation after one cycle. For too fast wire feeding, the wire underpins the melt for a while in a spoon-like manner. Apart from the drop size, the different modes affect the scatter of the flight trajectory and landing position, as important optimization criteria, for controlled 3D-printing.

This study investigates melt flow dynamics in asymmetric T-joint laser welding, particularly with sheets inclined up to 45°. This complex scenario requires filler wire, accessible only from the flat sheet side. High-speed imaging at the top and root captures transient phenomena leading to weld imperfections. Research on stainless-steel involved the impact of first-order welding parameters on the weld quality. This included multi-spot laser welding with two beams. The analysis focused on melt pool dynamics under these challenging conditions. The asymmetric root side’s geometry necessitates proper melt flow to form a favorable root topology, avoiding defects like wavy roots and porosity. Key observations included intermittent keyhole openings, transient melt flow effects, and potential spatter ejection at the bottom. The findings offer a comprehensive understanding of 3D asymmetric melt flow, laying the analytical groundwork for enhancing the weld quality.

Iron ore powder accompanied by Si-powder as a reducing agent, was melted using a high-power laser beam. During laser melting of the two different powder beds placed next to each other, silicon merged and diffused into the iron ore, forming a ternary melt phase Fe-O-Si of around 30–60–10 at%. High speed imaging of the laser melting process as well as subsequent SEM-analysis of the generated nuggets showed the formation of droplets that merge with the surrounding Si- or ore-powder and form distinct domains. Under certain circumstances, the solidifying nuggets, of the order of 0.5–5 mm in size, generated numerous small domains, up to 25 µm, of high purity iron, 90 + at%, surrounded by a matrix of the above mentioned slag. Many of these Fe-domains were created in the vicinity of regions of high Si-content.

This study reports on the laser-assisted reduction of iron ore waste using Al powder as areducing agent. Due to climate change and the global warming situation, it has become ofparamount importance to search for and/or develop green and sustainable processes for ironand steel production. In this regard, a new method for iron ore utilization is proposed in thiswork, investigating the possibility of iron ore waste reduction via metallothermic reaction withAl powder. Laser processing of iron ore fines was performed, focusing on the Fe2O3-Alinteraction behavior and extent of the iron ore reduction. The reaction between the materialsproceeded in a rather intense uncontrolled manner which led to a formation of Fe-rich domainsand alumina as two separate phases. In addition, a combination of Al2O3 and Fe2O3 melts aswell as transitional areas such as intermetallics were observed, suggesting the occurrence ofincomplete reduction reaction in isolated regions. The reduced iron droplets were prone toacquire a sphere-like shape and concentrated mainly near the surface of the Al2O3 melt or at theinterface with the iron oxide. Both SEM, EDS and WDS analyses were employed to analyzechemical composition, microstructure and morphological appearances of the reaction products.High-speed imaging was used to study the process phenomena and observe differences in themovement behavior of the particles. Furthermore, the measurements acquired from X-raycomputed microtomography revealed that approximately 2.4 % of iron was reduced during thelaser processing of Fe2O3-Al powder bed, most likely due to insufficient reaction time orinappropriate equivalence ratio of the two components.

In Laser-based Directed Energy Deposition of metal powder, the use of optimised parameters allows the deposition of defect-free material, while diverging from these optimised parameters can typically result in high porosity, high dilution or different track geometry. One of the main challenges when building complex geometries is that the geometrical and thermal conditions of the deposition are constantly changing, which requires to adjust the process parameters during the production. In order to facilitate this process, sensors such as thermal cameras can be used to extract data from the process and adapt the parameters to keep the process stable despite external disturbances. In this research, different signals extracted from a coaxial thermal camera are investigated and compared for process optimisation. To investigate such possibilities, five overlapped tracks are deposited at constant laser powers in order to extract average pixel values as well as the melt pool area, length, width and orientation. The behaviour of each track deposition is modelled as a function of the laser power, and these models are used to calculate and test laser power reduction strategies based on different signals. The results show that the melt pool area is the most relevant signal to use for an efficient process control, resulting in a stable process with only ±1.6 % of signal variation from track to track.

Absorbance is often used for simulations or validation of process parameters for powder-based laser materials processing. In this work, the absorbance of 39 metal powders for additive manufacturing is determined at 20 laser wavelengths. Different grain sizes and aging states for: steels, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, Nitinol, high entropy alloy, chromium, copper, brass and iron ore were analyzed. For this purpose, the absorbance spectrum of the powders was determined via a dual-beam spectrometer in the range of λ = 330 - 1560 nm. At the laser wavelengths of λ = 450 nm, 633 nm and 650 nm, the absorbance averaged over all materials was found to increase by a factor of 2.4 up to 3.3 compared to the usual wavelength of λ = 1070 nm, with minimal variations in absorbance between materials. In the investigation of the aged or used powders, a loss of absorbance was detectable. Almost no changes from the point of view of processing aged and new AlSi10Mg powders, is expected for laser sources with λ = 450 nm. The resulting measurements provide a good basis for process parameters for a variety of laser wavelengths and materials, as well as a data set for improved absorbance simulations.

Acoustic emissions in directed energy deposition processes such as wire arc additive manufacturing and directed energy deposition with laser beam/metal are investigated within this work, as many insights about the process can be gained from this. In both processes, experienced operators can hear whether a process is running stable or not. Therefore, different experiments for stable and unstable processes with common process anomalies were carried out, and the acoustic emissions as well as process camera images were captured. Thereby, it was found that stable processes show a consistent mean intensity in the acoustic emissions for both processes. For wire arc additive manufacturing, it was found that by the Mel spectrum, a specific spectrum adapted to human hearing, the occurrence of different process anomalies can be detected. The main acoustic source in wire arc additive manufacturing is the plasma expansion of the arc. The acoustic emissions and the occurring process anomalies are mainly correlating with the size of the arc because that is essentially the ionized volume leading to the air pressure which causes the acoustic emissions. For directed energy deposition with laser beam/metal, it was found that by the Mel spectrum, the occurrence of an unstable process can also be detected. The main acoustic emissions are created by the interaction between the powder and the laser beam because the powder particles create an air pressure through the expansion of the particles from the solid state to the liquid state when these particles are melted. These findings can be used to achieve an in situ quality assurance by an in-process analysis of the acoustic emissions.

Process monitoring is becoming increasingly important in laser-based manufacturing and is of particular importance in the field of additive manufacturing [e.g. Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF)]. Process monitoring enables a reduction of production costs and a lower time-to-market. Furthermore, the data can be used to create a digital twin of the workpiece. There are already many established processing head-integrated monitoring systems for such applications as the multispectral analysis of process radiation. However, the monitoring of complex signals in systems with F-Theta scanner lenses is very challenging and requires specially adapted optics or measuring sensors.

In this paper a potential arrangement for spectroscopy-based process monitoring in pre-objective scanning is presented. The process radiation was monitored using a coaxial and a quasi-coaxial observation system. The measurements were carried out on both a solid and a powder coated sample of 2.4668 (Inconel 718) to show the potential use of these systems in laser-based additive manufacturing. In order to obtain comprehensive data about the process signal, the process zone was analyzed at different angles of incidence (AOI) of the laser using a high-speed camera (HSI) and a spectrometer. The connection between the HSI and the spectral measurements is discussed. The ionization of the material and the formation of a plasma was observed and found to lose intensity as the angle of incidence increases. A model of the system that demonstrates the intensity of the emitted radiation of the plasma was created. It enables the measured values to be corrected. The corrected measurement data can be used to detect impurities or a non-ideal energy input across the entire processing field, which is a move towards robust process monitoring.

Blown powder directed energy deposition of SS316L powder is carried out on various substrate surface conditions of SS304 such as cleaned, sand blasted, milled, oily, cold galvanised and painted to study their influence on the process. High-speed imaging is used for process observation and the deposited tracks are analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using surface images, cross sectional macrographs and x-ray images. Frames from high-speed imaging reveal the removal of additional material from the substrate surface such as paint and oil. The stages involved in their removal: peeling and evaporation are presented. EDS analysis showed that no additional elements other than powder and substrate material are found in the track volume. The quantitative results for all specimens show that the surface conditions had minor influences on track width, track height, wetting angle, dilution and deposited cross sectional area. Defects such as porosity, inclusions and cracking were not observed related to the surface conditions. These findings could significantly reduce processing time by skipping the cleaning step before directed energy deposition such as laser cladding or repair in industrial applications.