Defect detection in laser powder deposition components by laser thermography and laser ultrasonic inspections

Abstract

Laser Powder Deposition (LDP) techniques are being adopted within aerospace and automotive manufacturing to produce innovative precision components. Non-destructive techniques (NDT) for detecting and quantifying flaws within these components enables performance and acceptance criteria to be verified, improving product safety and reducing ongoing maintenance and product repair costs. In this work, software enabled techniques are presented for in-process analysis of NDT laser ultrasonic signals and pulsed laser thermography images of sequential metallic LPD layers. LPD tracks can be as thin as 200μm while deposited at a rate of 500 mm/min, requiring ultrafast inspection and processing times. The research developed analysis algorithms that allow senior engineers to develop inspection templates and profiles for in-process inspection, as well as an end-to-end, user friendly interface for engineers to perform complete manual Laser Ultrasonic or Laser Thermographic inspections. Several algorithms are offered to quantify the flaw size. location and severity. The identified defects can be imported into a sentencing engine which then automatically compares analysis results against the user defined acceptance criteria so that the manufacturing products can be verified. Where both laser ultrasonic and laser thermographic NDT data is available further statistical tools could increase the confidence level of the inspection decision.