Laser ultrasonic testing for near-surface defects inspection of 316L stainless steel fabricated by laser powder bed fusion

The laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) method of additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly used in various industrial manufacturing fields due to its high material utilization and design freedom of parts. However, the parts produced by L-PBF usually contain such defects as crack and porosity because of the technological characteristics of L-PBF, which affect the quality of the product. Laser ultrasonic testing (LUT) is a potential technology for on-line testing of the L-PBF process. It is a non-contact and non-destructive approach based on signals from abundant waveforms with a wide frequency-band. In this study, a method of LUT for on-line inspection of L-PBF process was proposed, and a system of LUT was established approaching the actual environment of on-line detection to evaluate the method applicability for defects detection of L-PBF parts. The detection results of near-surface defects in L-PBF 316L stainless steel parts show that the crack-type defects with a sub-millimeter level within 0.5 mm depth can be identified, and accordingly, the positions and dimensions information can be acquired. The results were verified by X-ray computed tomography, which indicates that the present method exhibits great potential for on-line inspection of AM processes.