Application of Infrared Thermography in Detection of Defects in ۳D printed parts produced by FDM Method

In recent years, additive manufacturing processes have received significant attention and products fabricated by these methods are used for prototyping as well as final products. When these products are used as final products, Non-destructive testing is essential to insure the proper performance. In this paper, a PLA sample made of FDM method was inspected using active thermography. One of the most common defects that may happened during the FDM ۳D printing process is filament burn out defect (filament deformation and discoloration due to the high temperature) of the filament. Thermal images are captured during heating as well as cooling time and all defects are revealed in the thermal images. Hence, it can be concluded that active thermography can beneficiallybe used in inspection of these types of defects.

Keywords:

Nondestructive Tests , IR Thermography , Additive manufacturing , FDM Process