Inspection system and method for in-situ detection of characteristics within solidified powder material

Abstract

The invention relates to an inspection system (200) for in-situ detection of characteristics (114, 116) within solidified powder material (104) by means of a high-energy beam (128), comprising an eddy current-based inspection unit (202) that can be arranged on a moving unit (110) and which is arranged and configured to detect a material property of solidified powder material (104) by means of an eddy current inspection so that conductivity differences within the solidified powder material (104) can be detected in order to identify characteristics (114, 116) during additive manufacturing, wherein the inspection unit (202) comprises a first eddy current sensor unit (210) being arranged and configured to identify a characteristic having a first characteristic size greater than or equal to a size threshold, in particular a single defect, and wherein the inspection unit (202) comprises a second eddy current sensor unit (230) being arranged and configured to identify an aggregate of characteristics having a second characteristic size smaller than the size threshold, in particular a porous defect region.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.