Active thermography for quality control and defects detection in PEKK TPMS lattice structures

In the last years, the technological advancement has radically transformed the manufacturing sector. In particular, the advancement in the Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies enabled the creation of complex geometries such as lattice material, promoting their broader use across various engineering fields. Among the lattice structures, Triply Periodic Minimal Surface (TPMS) structures gained widespread interest thanks to their high strength-to-weight ratio, excellent thermal properties and superior energy absorption capabilities. Active thermography methods can be effectively and reliably applied for the detection of surface and subsurface defects in lattice structures. In this work, different active thermography techniques, like Pulsed (PT) and Lock-in (LT) thermography, were employed to evaluate the skin-core interface quality and to detect induced damages on TPMS gyroid structures manufactured in Poly-ether-ketone-ketone (PEKK) via Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technique.