Additive Manufacturing of metal alloys: Why XRD is an important tool for characterizing metal powders and built components

For metal fabrication processes such as casting, forging, and isostatic pressing, the heating-cooling regimes are more prolonged, controlled, and homogenous. However, for powder bed additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as SLM, EBM, and DED, the heating-cooling regimes are very fast and location-specific, which can lead to different microstructures than those obtained with conventional processes, even with the same alloy composition, and these can change further with post-treatments such as heating, machining and isostatic pressing.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a non-destructive analytical technique that can be used to study these processes by measuring microstructural characteristics such as phase composition, crystallite size, texture (crystallite orientation), and residual stress/strain.

In this webinar, Dr. Scott Speakman will discuss the importance of XRD for metal additive manufacturing, including powder and component analysis, with several application examples presented.