How to Test Additively Manufactured Parts for Quality

Authors: dr.ir. Alex Van den Bossche

How to test Additively Manufactured Parts for Quality?

Fast and Accurate NDT method for Additive Manufactured Parts

Do you produce Additive Manufactured (AM) metal or ceramic parts requiring 100% inspection? Is CT for you to challenging and to expensive? Is it difficult for you to find a more effective inspection method to do 100% Quality Inspection? Non-Destructive Testing using Impulse Excitation , also called Resonant Testing, is an ideal solution to measure the Microstructure Quality, and thus the structural integrity ( Elongation at Break and Fatigue Lifetime Performance) of your additively manufactured parts.

Benefits of Impulse Excitation/ Resonance Testing

• Fast and precise 100% quality inspection, up to 1 part per 3 seconds

• Detects Microstructural Changes, Dissipative Microcracks and Elastic Porosity

• Pass/fail inspection

Grindosonic MK7 with measurement station allow producers of additively manufactured metal or ceramic parts to inspect 100%.

Typical Additive Manufacturing Defects Detected

• Cracks

• Voids

• Missing materials

• Material changes

• Mixed product

• Global property shifts

• Inclusion

• Residual Stress

• Lack of fusion

• Layer delamination

• Unmelted powder

• Trapped powder

Typical Applications of Additive Manufacturing parts:

• Aerospace components

• Medical device parts

• Human body implants

• Automotive components

The ideal solution for Integrated QC in a wide range of Additive Manufacturing Processes

Realising 100% quality inspection for AM metal or ceramic parts is made easy with the Grindosonic MK7 Impulse Excitation Test System. The Grindosonic MK7 System realises a fast and accurate full-body inspection of AM components. It is applied for different AM technologies:

• Laser Powder Bed Fusion ( LPBF)

• Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion ( EB-PBF)

• Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)

• Directed Energy Deposition (DED)

• Laser Directed Energy Deposition ( L-DED)

• Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)

• Electron Beam Directed Energy Deposition (EB-DED)

• Binder Jetting ( BJ)

• Stereolithography (SLA)

And for a wide range of materials

The Grindosonic MK7 technologie is applicable for a wide range of Additive Manufacturing materials and composites, widely processed with LPBF, DED, Binder Jetting and WAAM:

1. Stainless steels

• 316L

• 304L

• 17-4PH

• 15-5PH

2. Tool steels

• H13

• M2

• AISI D2

3. Maraging steels

• 18Ni-300 (1.2709)

4. Aluminium alloys

• AlSi10Mg

• AlSi7Mg

• AlSi12

• Scalmalloy® (Al-Mg-Sc)

• Al-Cu alloys (limited, challenging)

• Al-Zn-Mg alloys (experimental)

5. Titanium alloys: very mature in AM (LPBF, EBM, DED)

• Commercially pure Ti (Grade 1–4)

• Ti-6Al-4V (most common)

• Ti-6Al-4V ELI

• β-Ti alloys (Ti-5553, Ti-Nb, Ti-Mo)

6. Nickel-based alloys: High-temperature applications (LPBF, DED, Binder Jetting)

• Inconel 625

• Inconel 718

• Hastelloy X

• Haynes 230

7. Cobalt-based alloys: (LPBF, Binder Jetting)

• Co-Cr-Mo (medical, dental)

• Co-Cr-W

8. Copper and copper alloys: challenging but growing (LPBF, DED)

• Pure copper

• CuCrZr

• CuNiSi

• Bronze (CuSn)

9. Refractory metals: high melting point (LPBF, EBM, DED)

• Tungsten (W)

• Molybdenum (Mo)

• Tantalum (Ta)

• Niobium (Nb)

10. Precious metals: mostly LPBF / Binder Jetting

• Gold

• Silver

• Platinum

• Palladium

The ideal solution for Process Control in Additive Manufacturing

The Grindosonic MK7 AM testing technology allows for 100% Quality Control (QC) as well as Process Control (PC). By measuring parts before and after each process step individually ( HIP, Grinding, Polishing, … ) the stability of this process step can be analysed and improved. If a process step increases fe. the internal friction of the parts significantly, then this process step should be revised to lower induction of dissipative microdefects, which will have a detrimental effect on the EAB and the fatigue lifetime performance.

Conclusion

The Grindosonic MK7 industrial measurement system is the ideal solution to measure the Quality of additive manufactured parts with high precision and high speed. It can be used for 100% inspection of large production quantities of parts.