Subsurface Defect Evaluation of Selective-Laser-Melted Inconel 738LC Alloy Using Eddy Current Testing for Additive/Subtractive Hybrid Manufacturing

New materials and manufacturing technologies require applicable non-destructive techniques for quality assurance so as to achieve better performance.This study comprehensively investigated the effect of influencing factors includ-ing excitation frequency,lift-off distance,defect depth and size,residual heat,and surface roughness on the defect EC signals of an Inconel 738LC alloy produced by selective laser melting(SLM).The experimental investigations recorded the impedance amplitude and phase angle of EC signals for each defect to explore the feasibility of detecting sub-surface defects by merely analyzing these two key indicators.Overall,this study revealed preliminary qualitative and roughly quantitative relationships between influencing factors and corresponding EC signals,which provided a prac-tical reference on how to quantitively inspect subsurface defects using eddy current testing(ECT)on SLMed parts,and also made solid progress toward on-line ECT in additive/subtractive hybrid manufacturing(ASHM)for fabricating SLMed parts with enhanced quality and better performance.

Experimental investigation of subsurface damage depth of lapped optics by fluorescent method

Subsurface defects were fluorescently tagged with nanoscale quantum dots and scanned layer by layer using confocal fluorescence microscopy to obtain images at various depths. Subsurface damage depths of fused silica optics were characterized quantitatively by changes in the fluorescence intensity of feature points. The fluorescence intensity vs scan depth revealed that the maximum fluorescence intensity decreases sharply when the scan depth exceeds a critical value. The subsurface damage depth could be determined by the actual embedded depth of the quantum dots. Taper polishing and magnetorheological finishing were performed under the same conditions to verify the effectiveness of the nondestructive fluorescence method. The results indicated that the quantum dots effectively tagged subsurface defects of fused-silica optics, and that the nondestructive detection method could effectively evaluate subsurface damage depths.

Effect of subsurface impurity defects on laser damage resistance of beam splitter coatings

The laser-induced damage threshold(LIDT)of plate laser beam splitter(PLBS)coatings is closely related to the subsurface absorption defects of the substrate.Herein,a two-step deposition temperature method is proposed to understand the effect of substrate subsurface impurity defects on the LIDT of PLBS coatings.Firstly,BK7 substrates are heat-treated at three different temperatures.The surface morphology and subsurface impurity defect distribution of the substrate before and after the heat treatment are compared.Then,a PLBS coating consisting of alternating HfO2–Al2O3 mixture and SiO2 layers is designed to achieve a beam-splitting ratio(transmittance to reflectance,s-polarized light)of approximately 50:50 at 1053 nm and an angle of incidence of 45◦,and it is prepared under four different deposition processes.The experimental and simulation results show that the subsurface impurity defects of the substrate migrate to the surface and accumulate on the surface during the heat treatment,and become absorption defect sources or nodule defect seeds in the coating,reducing the LIDT of the coating.The higher the heat treatment temperature,the more evident the migration and accumulation of impurity defects.A lower deposition temperature(at which the coating can be fully oxidized)helps to improve the LIDT of the PLBS coating.When the deposition temperature is 140◦C,the LIDT(s-polarized light,wavelength:1064 nm,pulse width:9 ns,incident angle:45◦)of the PLBS coating is 26.2 J/cm2,which is approximately 6.7 times that of the PLBS coating deposited at 200◦C.We believe that the investigation into the laser damage mechanism of PLBS coatings will help to improve the LIDT of coatings with partial or high transmittance at laser wavelengths.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the material removal in the scratching of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC substrates

Single crystal silicon carbide(SiC)is widely used for optoelectronics applications.Due to the anisotropic characteristics of single crystal materials,the C face and Si face of single crystal SiC have different physical properties,which may fit for particular application purposes.This paper presents an investigation of the material removal and associated subsurface defects in a set of scratching tests on the C face and Si face of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC materials using molecular dynamics simulations.The investigation reveals that the sample material deformation consists of plastic,amorphous transformations and dislocation slips that may be prone to brittle split.The results showed that the material removal at the C face is more effective with less amorphous deformation than that at the Si face.Such a phenomenon in scratching relates to the dislocations on the basal plane(0001)of the SiC crystal.Subsurface defects were reduced by applying scratching cut depths equal to integer multiples of a half molecular lattice thickness,which formed a foundation for selecting machining control parameters for the best surface quality.