The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) uses Avizo to quantify potential defects in additively manufactured samples
Dr Shuai Hou, Mélanie Bombardiere, Nathanael Turner, Jonathan Settle, Emmanuel Muzangaza, Dr David Brackett
Electron Beam Melting (EBM) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) process which can be used to fabricate complex 3D metal components. Ti-6Al-4V is one of the high value aerospace materials that has been widely used in the EBM process. However, defects such as gas pores and lack of fusion are often found in the as-built components, which can make a significant difference to the fatigue resistance of the parts. The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) uses X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) and 3D image segmentation techniques to quantify the size, morphology and distribution of defects in EBM samples. This has allowed further process parameter optimisation to manufacture component of better quality.