Integrity and quality assessment applied on laser welded titanium components

Paper in proceeding, 2014

Laser welding of thin titanium components, a critical component of many gas turbine engines, has demonstrated a tendency of generating pores in clusters with a prescribed orientation. These pores, also known as chain porosities, are often of harmless sizes (of 50-100 micrometer) as individuals. Though the cluster as such, depending on the distances and orientations in between the pores, may have an impact on the structural integrity. A recently developed algorithm for 3-D positioning of small pore defects in planar geometries using digital X-ray inspection aims at providing 3-D positions of the defects. This could then be used in-line to assess the welding quality in the manufacturing process. This presentation describes the development of a methodology that aims to incorporate non-destructive evaluation with, in this case, structural integrity. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014.