The evolution of additive manufacturing draws a growing attention to the quality of the raw materialsinvolved. During Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), impurities can be trapped by the melting action of the laseror electron beam followed by a rapid solidification, resulting in discontinuities of the sintered productswhere failure is likely to start. To increase the quality of the sintered parts, it is mandatory to minimizethe presence of impurities in the final product and therefore the risk of failure under service. This resultcan be achieved by improving the quality of the raw metal powders, which plays a key role in the overallprocess. In this study, intentionally contaminated AM metal powders were characterized by couplingscanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques with astatistical treatment of the data, obtaining a reliable method for powder impurities detection.
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