Material quality in laser powderbed melting has to be manufactured directly - and not assured by NDI

Material quality & reliability is a crucial item in additive manufacturing. As the build-up technology has many features in common with classical welding such experiences can be used to ensure the results of direct manufacturing processes like powderbed melting. Processing (& lessons learnt) the high performance Al-material concept Scalmalloy over the last 5 years by using laser powderbed melting revealed tremendously the importance of mastering the 3 core parameter in the additive manufacturing process chain. Properly manufactured powder converted by reliable laser melting process parameter and followed by a tailored post build-up heat treatment are safeguarding the requested target (product) material quality reflecting the required process robustness for future serial manufacturing. It became clear that melting process monitoring in combination with non-destructive inspection schemes like X-ray computer tomography are helpful control procedures but cannot assure (or save) the final material performance if insufficient processing parameter set-ups had been deployed.