Monitoring of laser processes has been researched actively since the 1980's in several institutes around the world. The goal of process monitoring is to gather information on the process and to improve the understanding of the occurring phenomena, and to use the gathered data to createquality control methods and adaptive, closed loop control of the process. The methods used forlaser process monitoring can be divided into optical and acoustic methods of which the optical methods are more common. Today, monitoring has been commercially applied to even the newest laser processes, e.g. additive manufacturing. For laser welding, the process monitoring has been developed even further and closed-loop systems have been demonstrated several years ago. The improvements in digital camera technology and data processing have resulted in development of systems that use feature recognition for determining certain features of the process. Monitoring systems have developed from simple systems using single sensors to a more sophisticated systems utilizing a multitude of different detectors and detection methods

Powder bed fusion is a laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology which is used to manufacture parts layer-wise from powdered metallic materials. The technology has advanced vastly in the recent years and current systems can be used to manufacture functional parts for e.g. aerospace industry. The performance and accuracy of the systems have improved also, but certain difficulties in the powder fusion process are reducing the final quality of the parts. One of these is commonly known as the balling phenomenon. The aim of this study was to define some of the process characteristics in powder bed fusion by performing comparative studies with two different test setups. This was done by comparing measured temperature profiles and on-line photography of the process. The material used during the research was EOS PH1 stainless steel. Both of the test systems were equipped with 200W single mode fiber lasers. The main result of the research was that some of the process instabilities are resulting from the energy input during the process

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) of stainless steel is a layer wisetechnology for fabricating 3D parts from metal powder via selectively melting powder with laser beam. Support structures play a significant role in LAM process as they help to remove heat away from the process and on the other hand hold the work piece in its place. A successful design of support structures can help to achievea building process fast and inexpensive with high quality.Aimof this study was to characterize the usability of two types of support structures: web and tube supports. Purpose of this studywas also to analyze how suitable they are in two industrial application cases: case for dental application and case for jewelry application.It was concluded that the removability of web supports was much better than tube supports. It was noticed that support structures are an important part of LAM process and they strongly affect the manufacturability and the end quality of the part

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) is a layer wise fabrication method in which a laser beam melts metallic powder to form solid objects. Although 3D printing has been invented 30 years ago, the industrial use is quite limited whereas the introduction of cheap consumer 3D printers, in recent years, has familiarized the 3D printing. Interest is focused more and more in manufacturing of functional parts. Aim of this study is to define and discuss the current economic opportunities and restrictions of LAM process. Manufacturing costs were studied with different build scenarios each with estimated cost structure by calculated build time and calculating the costs of the machine, material and energy with optimized machine utilization. All manufacturing and time simulations in this study were carried out with a research machine equal to commercial EOS M series equipment. The study shows that the main expense in LAM is the investment cost of the LAM machine, compared to which the relative proportions of the energy andmaterial costs are very low. The manufacturing time per part is the key factor to optimize costs of LAM.Peer reviewe