Manifattura additiva: progettazione e fabbricazione di componenti avanzati. = Additive manufacturing: design and manufacture of advanced components.

The thesis aims to investigate the innovative process of temperature sensors integration inside additively manufactured metal components. The goal of the project is to define and consolidate a stable and repeatable method to embed the measurement device inside free-form metal components, obtained from selective laser melting (SLM) technology. By overcoming the traditional limitations of sensors integration in components, this innovative method has the potential to support structural monitoring with high performance. In fact, the sensors can be placed in the most effective detection points, i.e. close to the size to be measured, as well as such as to make the integrated sensor invisible, protected from contamination and external interference. The production phase of the thesis has been supported by the plants of BeamIT (Fornovo di Taro, PR), which is leader supplier company of additively manufactured components. The thesis is divided in three parts. The first one, after describing the method, provides the analysis of materials usable for the integration process and focuses their own properties. In the second section, some test components with integrated thermal probes are fabricated, in order to verify the compatibility of the sensors with the process. In the third and last part, after the complete characterization of the method, the design and fabrication of a prototype with embedded sensors is introduced. During the design, moreover, by exploiting the intrinsic potential of additive technology, the topological optimization techniques are applied to maximize the strength/weight ratio of the sensorized component. Finally, the assembly and preliminary characterization of the prototype are provided.