Design of an optical system for the in situ process monitoring of Selective Laser Melting (SLM)

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is an Additive Manufacturing technology that enables the production of complex shaped individual parts with series identical mechanical properties. Areas of improvement are up to now quality and reproducibility of parts made by SLM due to different kinds of errors. Therefore the integration of a monitoring and control module into a SLM-machine is aspired. The design of such an optical system capable of monitoring high scanning velocities and melt pool dynamics is introduced as a first step.