High-resolution tomography facilitates defect-free Laser Additive Manufacturing

Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) is revolutionising manufacturing of its unique capability to produce complex geometries directly from a digital design. Current efforts have been focused on improving the build quality of LAM, removing defects such as cracks and pores, especially for light metals such as Magnesium and Aluminium alloys, which have poor printability. We used Synchrotron X-ray in situ fast radiography (> 40 kHz) to resolve the defect formation mechanisms at ID19, ESRF, and 32ID, APS. However, radiography has the constraint of being a 2D projection and so we now need post-mortem tomography can help us understand the 3D nature of the cracks and pores that we have seen in the latter stages of the radiography. Here, we propose to utilise the high sensitivity phase contrast of ID19 to better visualise pores and cracks beyond the resolution limit while maintaining the Field of View to assist the resolution of defect formation mechanisms in LAM.