Smart Sensors for Additive Manufacturing and Aluminum Foundry 4.0 Initiatives

Abstract

The direct 3D printing of investment shells and sand casting molds offers substantial opportunities to streamline the production process for low-volume, high-complexity aluminum castings, particularly for aerospace and military applications. Nevertheless, a thorough modeling and thermal mapping of the shells and the molds are necessary given that the thermomechanical characteristics of these materials are not well understood. Here, we demonstrated the employment of the novel Rayleigh Backscattering-based fiber-optic sensors for real time, distributed measurement of temperature with higher spatial resolution within various 3D-printed shells and molds during laboratory trials of an AA356 aluminum alloy. The optical fiber technology-enabled distributed temperature measurement within the mold and molten aluminum during the pouring and solidification processes, offering a spatial resolution of 0.65 mm for temperatures up to 800 °C. The capability to differentiate between closely spaced temperature variations, which generates detailed and information-rich thermal maps, unlocks numerous applications within additive manufacturing.

Department(s)

Materials Science and Engineering

Second Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Additive manufacturing; Aluminum; Process technology

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-303180675-9

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2367-1696; 2367-1181

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Springer, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2025

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS