Combining EBSD with serial-sectioning to investigate additively manufactured microstructures

Additive manufacturing (AM) has presented a new processing route for structural alloys, allowing for many exciting opportunities to create parts and components that either were too complex or expensive to make using traditional methods. However, not only are the possible part geometries complex, but with processing length-scales that are near the microstructural length-scales, and cooling rates that are much higher than normal, the microstructures that are formed during AM processing are much more complex than formed in traditional processing. Three-dimensional characterization can provide a much clearer picture of how these complex structures relate to the localized processing, and how this information can be used to quickly validate the AM processing and parts. In this webinar, we will present how automated EBSD mapping is essential to combine with serial sectioning using the Robotic Serial Sectioning System for 3D (RS3D) to clearly reconstruct the 3D microstructures in AM materials. This will include a discussion on the data collection, reconstruction, and analysis of the serial-section data. Additionally, we will present a short overview of the NLPAR algorithm for pattern processing, and how it greatly shortened the time required to collect the serial-sectioned data.