Active thermography for quality assurance of 3D-printed polymer structures

Additively manufactured test specimens made of polyamide 12 (PA 12) by Laser Sintering as well as of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) by Fused Layer Modelling, were characterised with active thermography directly after manufacturing and after artificial weathering. For this, two different excit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inQuantitative infrared thermography Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 50 - 71
Main Authors Metz, Christian, Franz, Philipp, Fischer, Christian, Wachtendorf, Volker, Maierhofer, Christiane
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis 01.01.2021
Subjects
active thermography
Additive manufacturing
artificial weathering
polymers
UV/VIS spectroscopy
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Additively manufactured test specimens made of polyamide 12 (PA 12) by Laser Sintering as well as of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) by Fused Layer Modelling, were characterised with active thermography directly after manufacturing and after artificial weathering. For this, two different excitation methods (flash and pulse heating) were used and compared, regarding their suitability for the detection of constructed and imprinted defects inside the test specimens. To increase the quality of the thermograms, data processing methods like thermal signal reconstruction (TSR) and Fourier Transformation after TSR were applied. To further investigate the long-term stability of the additively manufactured test specimens towards environmental stress, like UV radiation, heat, humidity, water contact and frost with active thermography, an artificial weathering test over 2000 hours (~3 months) was applied to the specimens. The monitoring of the changes in the optical properties of the weathered plastics was supplemented by spectral reflectance and UV/VIS spectroscopy.
ISSN:1768-6733
2116-7176
DOI:10.1080/17686733.2019.1686896