Synchrotron X-ray CT characterization of titanium parts fabricated by additive manufacturing. Part I. Morphology.

Synchrotron X-ray tomography has been applied to the study of titanium parts fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM). The AM method employed here was the Arcam EBM(®) (electron beam melting) process which uses powdered titanium alloy, Ti64 (Ti alloy with approximately 6%Al and 4%V), as the feed and an electron beam for the sintering/welding. The experiment was conducted on the Imaging and Medical Beamline of the Australian Synchrotron. Samples were chosen to examine the effect of build direction and complexity of design on the surface morphology and final dimensions of the piece.