The causal relationship between melt pool geometry and energy absorption measured in real time during laser-based manufacturing

Abstract During laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing, laser power absorption is governed by a protean pool of molten metal that can present as a highly reflective surface, a deeply absorbing cavity, or some amalgamation thereof. These melt pool dynamics have been linked to defect creation, porosity, and surface finish quality. Although these are therefore critical for determining final part quality, their instantaneous influence on laser absorption have only been explored through simulation. To date, direct real-time observations have been elusive due to the locally extreme environment. In this work, we focus a laser on Ti-6Al-4V powder and bare plate while quantifying the time-dependent, absolute energy absorption by monitoring omnidirectional backscattered laser intensity. We also simultaneously record the projective melt pool geometries with high-speed synchrotron x-ray imaging. We find that laser absorption strongly reflects the stability of the vapor depression over a wide range of applied laser powers, oxygen content in the processing atmosphere, and with the presence of powder. During laser scanning of a powder bed surface, we find a significant absorption reduction after 400 µs due to a dramatic change in the vapor depression aspect ratio – an event known to create porosity. As several industrial scan strategies necessitate thousands of these events during a build, their identification and control is of significant practical importance. Lastly, a normalized enthalpy model is demonstrated to be effective in quantifying the relationship between the laser absorption and cavity depth, even under transient conditions. In addition to providing vital quantitative data for simulation calibration, the correlation of melt pool geometry with laser absorption during realistic processing conditions suggests the use of a total backscattered light detection system for real-time process control.