In-situ monitoring of powder bed fusion of metals using eddy current testing

Powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M) is the most commonly used additive manufacturing process for the layerwise production of metal parts. Although the technology has developed rapidly in recent years, manufactured parts still lack consistent quality primarily owing to process-inherent variability, and the lack of effective sensing technologies enabling the ability to control the process during part production. Thus, there are high costs caused by rigorous post-process part inspection steps required to provide compliant part certificates. In contrast to typically deployed in-situ sensing technologies, eddy current testing (ECT) is a standardized nondestructive testing (NDT) technique able to provide compliant part certificates during post-process inspection according to existing standards. This study investigates the potential of ECT as an in-situ process monitoring technology for PBF-LB/M. Parts made from AlSi10Mg were manufactured on a PBF-LB/M machine using different process parameters yielding different relative densities ranging from 99%- 99.7%. During the build cycle, the parts were measured layer-by-layer with an ECT system mounted on the machine recoater. Signal analysis methods were developed which effectively separate and calibrate the electrical conductivity component (relative electrical conductivity) and the distance component (lift-off) of the ECT signals. The relative electrical conductivity was then compared to X-ray micro-computed tomography symbolscript measurement data demonstrating that layer-to-layer differences in relative density of about 0.1% can be successfully detected via ECT. In addition, the lift-off was used to monitor the thickness of the consolidated layers and the layer-to-layer part height. The results show that ECT is an effective technology for in-situ monitoring of the relative part density paving the way for deploying ECT for in-situ NDT of PBF-LB/M-manufactured parts.