AMiquam product supporting LPBF process qualification

Installation, Operation, and Performance Qualification are core components of the quality system of any company producing parts by means of Laser Powder Bed Fusion. A new technical specification has been issued by ISO and ASTM with recommendations on how to implement them. An inspirational statement provided in this document and motivating the qualifications efforts is the fact that, in absence of a complete comprehension of the LPBF part failure mechanisms, reducing the process variations is as important as performing NDT. As stated in the standard, routine end-product testing alone often is not sufficient to assure product quality because in some situations end-product testing does not reveal all variations that can occur in the product that can impact on safety and effectiveness. Our mission is to offer the industry the tools revealing such variations during the fabrication.

AMiquam product supports the implementation of this standard by providing quantitative information at every step of the IQ-OQ-PQ. The product is easy to install in any LPBF machine with practical data that can directly feed CpK. We provide support to prepare the requested documentation.

An advantage of the measurement technique is to provide in-machine critical output variables, such as the increased porosity or the inconsistency in part dimensions, whereas competing monitoring solutions are limited to input variables like the laser or the melt pool properties.