Absolute temperature determination in laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) via hyperspectral thermography

Abstract Temperature is a key characteristic in laser powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M). As a quantitative physical property, the temperature can determine the actual process quality independently from the nominal process parameters. Thus, establishing a process evaluation on temperatures rather than the comparison of process conditions is expected to be more effective. However, quantitative in situ temperature measurements with classical thermographic methods are virtually impossible. The reason is that the required emissivity value changes drastically throughout the process. Additionally, large temperature ranges along with the highly dynamic nature of the PBF-LB/M process make temperature measurements difficult. Based on this challenge, this work presents a method for hyperspectral temperature determination. The spectral exitance (in W/m 2 ⋅nm) was measured in situ at many adjacent wavelengths in the short-wave infrared (SWIR). This enabled a local temperature determination via Planck’s law in combination with a spectral emissivity function. The temperature field of the melt pool crossing the 1D measurement line was reconstructed from the information, gathered at nearly 20 kHz sampling rate. The reconstructed melt pool had a spatial resolution of 17 µm by 40 µm, and temperatures between 2700 and 1300 K were observable. Comparison of the 316L stainless steel solidification temperature and the observed solidification plateau in the gathered thermal data revealed a relative error of less than 6% in the absolute temperature measurement. These initial results of hyperspectral temperature determination in PBF-LB/M show the potential in the method. It allows for physically founded process evaluation, and the prospects for tuning and validation of numerical simulations are highly promising.