On the use of X-ray microtomography to control artificial defect geometries produced by metal additive manufacturing

ABSTRACT

In the field of metal additive manufacturing (AM), defect control and monitoring is a crucial issue regarding recent developments for aeronautics and aerospace applications, especially for mechanical performances and quality control. The present work addresses methodologies to build specific geometries of defects using various metal additive manufacturing processes and based-materials. X-ray microtomography is used to validate the methodologies, control the reproducibility and positioning of the defects, and define the minimal achievable defects size. Hot Isostatic Pressing is applied to the samples to close the pores. The final microstructure is then compared to the as-built one. In future work, generated pore geometries will be used as building models to study the impact of pore shape and position on mechanical properties.

KEYWORDS:

• Metal additive manufacturing
• defect monitoring
• X-Ray microtomography
• pore closure
• hot isostatic pressure

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of the ANDDURO project managed by IRT Saint Exupéry. We want to thank the industrial members of the ANDDURO project and the associated IRT’s team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work benefited from a State grant managed by the by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under the PIA programme, from a Occitanie region grant and is supported by industrial members.