Methods for Rapid Pore Classification in Metal Additive Manufacturing

• Published in: JOM (1989) Vol. 72; no. 1; pp. 101 - 109
• Main Authors: Snell, Robert, Tammas-Williams, Sam, Chechik, Lova, Lyle, Alistair, Hernández-Nava, Everth, Boig, Charlotte, Panoutsos, George, Todd, Iain
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 3D Materials Science; Additive manufacturing; Algorithms; Chemistry/Food Science; Classification; Clustering; Computed tomography; Design of experiments; Earth Sciences; Engineering; Environment; Keyholes; Machine learning; Material properties; Measurement techniques; Melting; Methods; Morphology; Nickel base alloys; Optimization; Photomicrographs; Physics; Porosity; Superalloys; Titanium base alloys
• ISSN: 1047-4838; 1543-1851
• DOI: 10.1007/s11837-019-03761-9

The additive manufacturing of metals requires optimisation to find the melting conditions that give the desired material properties. A key aspect of the optimisation is minimising the porosity that forms during the melting process. A corresponding analysis of pores of different types (e.g. lack of fusion or keyholes) is therefore desirable. Knowing that pores form under different thermal conditions allows greater insight into the optimisation process. In this work, two pore classification methods were trialled: unsupervised machine learning and defined limits. These methods were applied to 3D pore data from X-ray computed tomography and 2D pore data from micrographs. Data were collected from multiple alloys (Ti-6Al-4V, Inconel 718, Ti-5553 and Haynes 282). Machine learning was found to be the most useful for 3D pore data and defined limits for the 2D pore data; the latter worked by optimising the limits using energy densities.