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3D binder jet technology has drawn significant attention in recent years thanks to its ability to build complex shapes with a wide variety of commercial powders, together with the advantage of not using high energy sources during the printing process. Binder jet makes use of several printheads containing a formulated binder to build the layers of a part within a few seconds. This allows a significant improvement of the manufacturing productivity and quality with respect to laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) or conventional metal injection molding (MIM).

Synchrotron tomography was carried out during in-situ tensile tests of fiber metal laminates formed by 3 layers of friction stir welded AlMg4.5Sc0.2 (AA5024) alloy foils and 2 layers of glass fiber reinforced polymer. The aim of these investigations was to identify the damage mechanisms and their sequence during quasi-static loading conditions of the fiber metal laminate as well as to determine microstructural features responsible for tensile damage. The microstructural and geometric changes produced by the friction stir welding process on the aluminum foils resulted in a strain localization and further damage accumulation in the welded aluminum foils, where the smallest transverse areas and lowest tensile properties were found.

Two flat hollow cylinders made of martensitic 9 wt.% Cr steels were creep deformed under in-service conditions typical of steam pipes at fossil-fuel fired power plants. Damage in the tubes was assessed through synchrotron X-ray microtomography by evaluating the shape, size and spatial-distribution of voids. The analysis of the size distribution of non-coalesced voids suggested that void growth is controlled by the plasticity constrained diffusional mechanism, a hypothesis verified by micromechanical simulations. A much higher void density was found in steel grade P91 compared to E911.