Research Articles (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering)

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Browsing Research Articles (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering) by Author "Beerlink, Andre"

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    Standard method for microCT-based additive manufacturing quality control 3 : surface roughness
    (Elsevier, 2018) Du Plessis, Anton; Sperling, Philip; Beerlink, Andre; Kruger, Oelof; Tshabalala, Lerato; Hoosain, Shaik; Le Roux, Stephan G.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The use of microCT of 10 mm coupon samples produced by AM has the potential to provide useful information of mean density and detailed porosity information of the interior of the samples. In addition, the same scan data can be used to provide surface roughness analysis of the as-built surfaces of the same coupon samples. This can be used to compare process parameters or new materials. While surface roughness is traditionally done using tactile probes or with non-contact interferometric techniques, the complex surfaces in AM are sometimes difficult to access and may be very rough, with undercuts and may be difficult to accurately measure using traditional techniques which are meant for smoother surfaces. This standard workflow demonstrates on a coupon sample how to acquire surface roughness results, and compares the results from roughly the same area of the same sample with tactile probe results. The same principle can be applied to more complex parts, keeping in mind the resolution limit vs sample size of microCT.
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    Standard method for microCT-based additive manufacturing quality control 4 : Metal powder analysis
    (Elsevier, 2018) Du Plessis, Anton; Sperling, Philip; Beerlink, Andre; Du Preez, Willie B.; Le Roux, Stephan G.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: X-ray micro computed tomography (microCT) can be applied to analyse powder feedstock used in additive manufacturing. In this paper, we demonstrate a dedicated workflow for this analysis method, specifically for Ti6Al4V powder typically used in commercial powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) systems. The methodology presented includes sample size requirements, scan conditions and settings, reconstruction and image analysis procedures. We envisage this method will support standardization in powder analysis in the additive manufacturing community. This is aimed at ultimately improving the quality of additively manufactured parts, through the identification of impurities and defects in powders.