System and method for inspecting components fabricated using a powder metallurgy process

A method, comprising steps of:

• forming a plurality of inspection standards using a metal injection molding process;
• during the metal injection molding process, intentionally introducing at least one of a thermal shock or a thermal stress during a sintering operation of the metal injection molding process to induce a crack in each one of the inspection standards;
• performing a first nondestructive inspection operation on each one of the inspection standards to determine a crack-property of the crack of each one of the inspection standards;
• selecting a first one of the inspection standards in which the crack-property of the crack is below a predetermined threshold crack-property for use as a lower boundary qualification standard;
• and
• selecting a second one of the inspection standards in which the crack-property of the crack is above the threshold crack-property for use as an upper boundary qualification standard.

A system, comprising:

• a reference library of physical artifacts comprising at least a first inspection standard and a second inspection standard formed by a metal injection molding process, wherein:
• the first inspection standard comprises a first crack that is intentionally induced by introducing at least one of a thermal shock or a thermal stress during a sintering operation of the metal injection molding process;
• the second inspection standard comprises a second crack that is intentionally induced by introducing at least one of the thermal shock or the thermal stress during the sintering operation of the metal injection molding process;
• the first crack comprises a first crack-property that is below a threshold crack-property;
• and
• the second crack comprises a second crack-property that is above the threshold crack-property;
• and
• a first nondestructive inspection device configured to:
• inspect the first inspection standard and the second inspection standard;
• and
• qualitatively verify that the first crack-property is below the threshold crack-property and that the second crack-property is above the threshold crack-property;
• a second nondestructive inspection device configured to:
• inspect the first inspection standard and the second inspection standard;
• produce a first reference-response associated with the first crack-property of the first inspection standard;
• and
• produce a second reference-response associated with the second crack-property of the second inspection standard;
• and
• a computing device configured to:
• store the first reference-response and the second reference-response;
• and
• qualify a part formed using a powder metallurgy process using the first reference-response and the second reference-response based on a comparison of a response from nondestructive inspection of the part.