Application of X-ray CT method for discontinuity and porosity detection in 316L stainless steel parts produced with SLM technology

Industrial tomography (XCT) is a nondestructive test method that provides information about spatial distribution of X-ray absorption in the analyzed structures. The aim of this paper was to examine the possibility and accuracy of application of XCT method for discontinuity and porosity detection in parts made of 316L stainless steel powder produced by Selective Laser Melting technology. Analysis conducted on three produced test samples showed that the application of XCT as a method of quality control of specimens produced with an additive manufacturing technology offers a wide range of possibilities to detect porosity within materials. Parameters such as the amount of porosity, pore size and pore shape are presented. Accuracy of XCT method strongly depends on the size of the samples analyzed, but the possibility of obtaining information in 3D nondestructively shows considerable advantages of XCT method over traditional metallographic cross-sectional analysis.