A review of the current state-of-the-art on in situ monitoring in electron beam powder bed fusion

Abstract

The industrial development of electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB) is relatively younger and much more limited in terms of global widespread and revenues compared to laser powder bed fusion (PBF-L). Nevertheless, PBF-EB has been adopted in some of the most successful industrial case studies of metal AM, as it provides specific benefits and capabilities that make it a key enabling technology in a variety of industrial applications. Moreover, the recent years have seen a rapid evolution with new actors and new systems entering the market, together with a considerable increase of research and innovation programs. A field of major interest is the development and continuous improvement of in situ sensing and monitoring methods to anticipate the detection of defects, to predict the final quality of the part, and to rethink product qualification procedures. The technological features of the PBF-EB process have motivated the development of solutions that differ from the ones in PBF-L. Some of them have reached a good maturity level, being recently integrated into industrial machines, while others still deserve further research. This study explores the current state-of-the-art on in situ and in-line monitoring of the PBF-EB process, aiming to provide an up-to-date overview of the major differences with respect to PBF-L, currently available methods and their performances, as well as open issues, challenges to be tackled, and perspective for future research and industrial developments.