| Abstract | X-ray computed tomography (XCT) has been used for more than two decades to support the development of additive manufacturing (AM). However, most of the efforts have been put on the printed components: geometry evaluation, dimensional inspection and porosity measurement. More recently, microfocused x-ray computed tomography (µXCT) has been used to characterise morphology and porosity of 3D printing metal powders. This paper shows that this technique can also be used to assess the contaminant content in AM metal powders as well. As a demonstration, results obtained with deliberately contaminated powders of different alloy families are presented. So far, the technique has been used mostly for titanium because of its applications in aerospace and medical devices; two manufacturing fields subjected to severe regulations and strict qualification processes. Detailed description of the method used for titanium is presented. For contaminants having a density significantly above the one of titanium, the method has a sensitivity of 0.005 ppm vol. Finally, future perspectives are discussed. |
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