Abstract Scope |
Additive manufacturing of glass has the potential to revolutionize optical component production, but traditional methods of 3D fabrication, such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), create too much porosity for printed glass to be optically transparent. Direct energy deposition (DED) methods utilizing fully-dense glass feedstock can produce optically transparent parts, but material and process variations can result in variations in quality. Further, quality is significantly dependent on path and geometry. Here, we report the use of a thermal camera to provide in-situ feedback of material thermal state during deposition. Several methods are considered for generating a scalar measure of the thermal state, including area above a threshold, integrated temperature, and width of the softened region. Laser power is adjusted through feedback to maintain constant print behavior, evaluated in both rastered (in-layer) and layer-to-layer paths. This presentation will report on the performance results of the regulated process. |