Laser beam welding of additive manufactured components: Applicability of existing valuation regulations

With additive manufacturing in the powder bed, the component size is limited by the installation space. Joint welding of additively manufactured parts offers a possibility to remove this size limitation. However, due to the specific stress and microstructure state in the additively built material, it is unclear to what ex-tent existing evaluation rules of joint welding are also suitable for welds on additive components. This is in-vestigated using laser beam welding of additively manufactured pipe joints. The welds are evaluated by means of visual inspection, metallographic examina-tions as well as computed tomography. The types of defects found are comparable to conventional com-ponents. This is an indicator that existing evaluation regulations also map the possible defects occurring for weld seams on additive components.