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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibility of in situ flaw detection for powder bed, beam‐based additive manufacturing processes using a thermal imaging system. Design/methodology/approach The authors compare infrared images (IR) which were taken during the generation of Ti‐6Al‐4V parts in a selective electron beam melting system (SEBM) with metallographic images taken from destructive material investigation. Findings A good match is found between the IR images and the material flaws detected by metallographic techniques. Research limitations/implications First results are presented here, mechanisms of flaw formation and transfer between build layers are not addressed in detail. Originality/value This work has important implications for quality assurance in SEBM and rapid manufacturing in general.
Schwerdtfeger et al. (Fri,) studied this question.