A major impediment to the adoption of new advanced manufacturing processes of engineering alloys (including additive manufacturing) in industrial settings is the high prevalence of defects in finished products which can negatively influence performance. This workshop brought together researchers from industry, national laboratories, and academia to discuss how synchrotron X-ray measurements could be used to better characterize these defects and understand how they are generated in order to mitigate their formation. Morning presentations high-lighted characterization advances at synchrotron sources and the most pressing challenges faced in industry, while afternoon sessions consisted of discussions of how synchrotron tools could be applied to target material challenges presented in the morning. The visiting attendees were also able to tour the new CHESS facilities and see the finished CHESS-Upgrade.
CHESS currently operates two high-energy X-ray beamlines relevant to research discussed at the workshop: the Forming and Shaping Technology (FAST) Beamline which is operated with NSF-funding through CHEXS at CHESS and the Structural Materials Beamline (SMB) which is supported by AFRL through MSN-C. Both beamlines focus on elucidating structure-processing-properties-performance relationships in structural materials. The workshop explored how measurements at CHESS can support fundamental and applied research in support of pressing manufacturing challenges in industry, particularly the development of new alloy processing routes.
A white paper summarizing the workshop and the attendees’ findings will be released through LANL.