SILIOS Technologies takes profit of the developments made during the EU project InShaPe on Laser-Based Additive Manufacturing domain to keep its advance in multispectral sensors against worldwide competition, extend its Multispectral cameras and sensors portfolio and adapt them in order to address other markets.

The two innovation pillars of InShaPe project innovation are combined Flexible adaptation of laser beam shapes with AI-techniques to determine the optimal beam shapes for the target value (e.g., determined by material type) and a Multispectral in-line process monitoring & control system for predictive quality analysis.

Within EU InShaPe project, the target of SILIOS Technologies is to enable the transfer of the multispectral imaging technology to the Laser-Based additive manufacturing domain in collaboration with the other leading Research Institutions and Industrial Partners that constitute this unrivalled consortium. Then, as exploitation tasks, SILIOS Technologies is willing firstly to offer a solution for the specific powder bed-based additive manufacturing of metals application with the developed VIS/NIR and SWIR Multispectral cameras and proposes its solutions at several exhibitions on demanding domains such as Space for instance. Secondly SILIOS Technologies is currently benchmarking these  multispectral sensors in order to define what is to be adapted in terms of spectral bands, spectral resolution, spatial resolution to approach other markets and provide new solutions for them.

About the VIS/NIR cameras specifically made for PBF-LB/M process within EU InShaPe project, we found as target applications whatever processes using tooling Lasers, not only Laser-Based additive manufacturing, but also on metallurgy, nuclear applications for instance where they image molten metal surfaces and look at temperature and emissivity.

Concerning the SWIR cameras, we succeeded during EU InShaPe project in developing an unrivalled Snapshot Synchronous Bayer type SWIR Multispectral camera. Now it has been manufactured in the fall of 2023 to be supplied for implementation in the PBF-LB/M machine at TUM, it was the only SWIR multispectral camera of this type available on the worldwide market. It was proposing a 1.3 Mpix spatial resolution and with 5µm pixel size offering a very low footprint making it easy to integrate in production lines or machines.

Ahead in this technological advance, SILIOS Technologies is looking at other markets and a strong interest has appeared in Defense (Decamouflage, Laser Alert detection applications), Space (Space Domain Awareness, Planet exploration on Rovers applications), Quality control and defect detections in production lines where humidity has to be detected and monitored, Plastic sorting machines (due to last EU rules where a distinction has to be made among the different PETs (not only the different plastics as previously) and others. The high interest in these SWIR multispectral cameras is linked to their extreme versatility (thanks to a capability of spectral bands selections) and to their extremely small footprint and weight, allowing them to be placed on military vehicles, drones, soldiers, SmallSats, production and sorting machines etc.

To conclude, with the EU InShaPe project, SILIOS Technologies worked to remain at the cutting edge of multispectral sensor technology and to strengthen its leadership position in many markets. It reinforces SILIOS as a European player in the worldwide Multispectral Imaging competition. 

Authors : Thierry Berthou, Vincent Sauget, Stéphane Tisserand