A Pragmatic Approach for Rapid, Non-Destructive Assessment of Defect Types in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Based on Melt...

Area of Science:

• Additive Manufacturing
• Materials Science
• Quality Control

Background:

• Laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) is a key additive manufacturing technology.
• In-situ process monitoring is crucial for ensuring part quality in PBF-LB/M.
• Current methods for defect detection can be time-consuming and require downstream testing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a pragmatic and rapid approach for inferring defect occurrence and types in PBF-LB/M parts.
• To utilize in-situ data from commercially available process monitoring systems.
• To enable straightforward separation of quality parts from defective components.

Main Methods:

• A pragmatic approach using color distribution histograms derived from layer-wise screenshots of monitoring software visualizations.
• Analysis of histograms from AlSi10Mg samples processed with varying parameters.
• Correlation of histogram characteristics with specific defect types.

Main Results:

• Distinct histogram characteristics were identified corresponding to different defect types in AlSi10Mg samples.
• The approach successfully predicted the occurrence and types of defects.
• The method allows for rapid quality assessment directly from in-situ data.

Conclusions:

• The developed histogram-based approach provides a fast and effective method for defect detection in PBF-LB/M.
• This technique simplifies quality control by enabling direct separation of good and defective parts.
• The method is applicable even without direct access to raw machine data, leveraging existing software visualizations.