Systems and methods for monitoring and controlling additive printing processes

A system for monitoring and controlling a 3D printer that implements a layer-wise additive manufacturing process to form a 3D object made of multiple layers of print material, the system comprising:

• a thermographic imaging device for obtaining thermographic image data of a macro thermal field of individual layers of printed material formed by the 3D printer during the layer-wise additive manufacturing process;
• and
• a computer control module for controlling the 3D printer, the computer control module configured to implement a control program comprising the steps:
• using a developed mathematical thermophysical-based model to print a layer of print material with the 3D printer across a print area according to a first print sequence of islands and/or stripes that uses a thermal fusion process based on layer geometry, wherein the layer comprises a plurality of melt areas of the print material;
• obtaining temperature distribution information for the layer across the entire print area using the thermographic imaging device;
• calculating a second print sequence of islands and/or stripes based on the geometry of current layer and the thermal distribution of previously printed layer) for printing an immediately succeeding layer of print material on the layer, wherein the second print sequence is different than the first print sequence and is optimized to produce an optimal uniform temperature distribution throughout the succeeding layer that mitigates development of thermally induced residual stress and thermal distortion related thereto in the 3D object during the additive printing process;
• and
• printing the succeeding layer with the 3D printer using the thermal process onto the layer according to the second print sequence.