Ultrasonic online monitoring of additive manufacturing processes based on selective laser melting

Additive manufacturing processes have become commercially available and are particularly interesting for the production of free-formed parts. Selective laser melting allows to manufacture components by localized melting of successive layers of metal powder. In order to be able to describe and to understand the complex dynamics of selective laser melting processes more accurately, online measurements using ultrasound have been performed for the first time. In this contribution, we report on the integration of the measurement technique into the manufacturing facility and on a variety of promising monitoring results.