Manufacturing-Induced Imperfections: Detection and Impact on Structural Integrity

Manufacturing and Inspection Methods for Turbine Components – Owen Draper, Rolls Royce
Modern flight relies on the safety of the modern jet engine.  The turbine environment within the engine is arguably the most arduous.  The super alloy single crystal cast turbine blades must meet the most stringent structural integrity standards to ensure the engine will function for its intended life.  Design standards are in place to ensure the stresses and strains that the component will experience are understood prior to manufacture and engine testing.  Modern manufacturing uses process simulation extensively to define likely regions of defects such as porosity or grain boundaries and then can assist in defining defect free manufacturing processes whilst minimising expensive casting trials.  Recent improvements to inspection capability have assisted in detecting castings with defects, for instance X-ray computer tomography is a highly capable inspection technique with potentials for automation.  This paper will highlight some of the tools that are used in manufacturing to ensure that the cast turbine blades meet the stringent structural requirements.  

Moving from in-situ detection to in-process QA in Additive Manufacture - Iain Todd, University of Sheffield

In-situ monitoring is now commonplace in Additive Manufacturing but the volume of data we capture does not, generally speaking, translate into high quality actionable insight for us to use to control the process. In this talk I will discuss activities underway to deliver this form of actionable insight and propose a means of taking this forwards to help in fulfilling the promise of Additive Manufacture namely form, function and performance on demand.

Data‑Driven Prediction of Porosity in Additive Manufacturing: Integrating In‑Process Monitoring, AI Prediction and NDT to make decisions on part quality - Nikita Pietrow, MTC
Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes inherently introduce imperfections such as porosity which can significantly influence structural integrity and component performance. This presentation introduces a new data‑driven decision‑making workflow, leveraging GrantaMI, that integrates in‑process monitoring, advanced analytics, and non‑destructive testing to predict manufacturing imperfections. Using controlled AM builds, meltpool and thermography data, porosity measurements and AI modelling, the project showcased a toolkit which enables quicker evidence-based quality decisions on produced AM parts. The digital inspection workflows developed on the project can enhance reliability, reduce scrap and support robust engineering assurance.

NDT assessment of Machining induced surface integrity - Matthew Brown, AMRC
The microstructural surface integrity of a machined component has a known detrimental effect on the achievable fatigue life of materials such as high strength steels, nickel-based superalloys and titanium alloys. Verifying surface integrity is important, particularly in the aerospace and medical industries and has traditionally been achieved via fixed manufacturing processes and destructive validation, with remedial action often limited to immersion etching to remove the feature. This talk will cover the development of a non-destructive X-Ray diffraction based solution for detection and sizing of defects such as white layers, severe plastic deformation and grinding burn via both lab-based and on-machine technology. This method enables both validation of production components, and more rapid new process and product development.

A Probabilistic Assessment Framework for Weld Lifetime in Long-term Storage - Georgia Schneider, TWI
This work presents the probabilistic assessment of thick-section electron-beam welds in nuclear waste canisters developed for Nagra to support long-term safety assessments. This assessment estimates the distribution of canister breach times arising from uncertainties in repository conditions, material behaviour, flaw sizes and locations, inspection capabilities, and corrosion processes. The model integrates multiple physics-based modules, including corrosion-induced wall-loss, hydrogen-induced reductions in fracture toughness, flaw evolution, and finite-element-based stress analysis. Since performing a full finite element analysis (FEA) for every instance and time step would be computationally prohibitive, the stress module employs a machine-learning surrogate model trained on a limited set of FEA results.

Welding for Fusion Energy: From Fabrication to Qualification - Robert Hamill & Frances Livera, UKAEA
The design and performance validation of welded joints remains a critical structural integrity challenge in many engineering industries, including fusion energy generation. Fabrication rules typically mandate non-destructive testing and prescribe allowable tolerances for defects such as porosity, cracking, and geometric discontinuity. Nevertheless, inherent variability in material behaviour remains and must be addressed during qualification. In fusion applications, this challenge is amplified by the need to demonstrate performance under complex environmental conditions in first-of-a-kind environments.
Knowledge of heterogeneous mechanical properties enables improved structural analysis, enhancing insight into failure mechanisms and reducing conservatism, while also informing manufacturing processes such as welding and post-weld heat treatment. In turn, this provides a pathway to accelerate qualification by using fewer, information-rich tests to quantify the spatial variability that governs performance. This is particularly important for nuclear fusion power plant delivery, where the timescales for qualification of novel materials requires an accelerated approach. This talk will discuss welding in the context of fusion energy and present a novel methodology for the characterisation of heterogeneous mechanical properties of welded joints.

Industrial Advances in Understanding Surface Integrity and the Service Lives of Safety Critical Rotating Components - Kyle Marshall, Rolls-Royce

Abstract to follow

Owen Draper, Rolls Royce

Owen Draper is a graduate of the University of Birmingham, where he completed a PhD on investment casting core materials.  He has over 25 years experience of working within foundries at Rolls-Royce where he specialises in Nickel superalloy single crystal investment casting.  He has a background in technology development in both processes and for new parts.  Most recently, Owen was the technical manager for a research foundry for the University of Birmingham and Rolls-Royce.  He is currently the Global Process Owner for single crystal casting for Rolls-Royce where he oversees the technical direction for Sx casting for the company.

Iain Todd, University of Sheffield

Professor Iain Todd is an international authority in the field of powder metallurgy and additive manufacture (AM or 3D printing) of metals and alloys. His work focuses on enhancing the manufacturing rate while simultaneously improving component quality and structural integrity. His work is conducted in close collaboration with industry and on an appropriate scale to allow rapid transition of laboratory discoveries into industrial practice.

Nikita Pietrow, MTC

Dr Nikita Pietrow is a Senior Research Engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). He has a background in materials science from the University of Sheffield followed by an engineering doctorate (EngD) at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Rolls-Royce. During the EngD research project, Nikita investigated the application of image processing, AI and data analytics, for modelling and characterisation of abrasive machining processes. Since joining the MTC he has worked on a range of digital manufacturing projects across aerospace, automotive, and built environment sectors. In his role at the MTC, Nikita helps accelerate the adoption of technology in key industries across the UK by architecting and prototyping complex cyber-physical systems that utilise data, connectivity, digital twins, AI, XR, vision systems, and many other technologies to deliver lasting value and resource efficiencies. Currently, Nikita leads a number of projects in digitisation of additive manufacturing and automation of NDT inspection data analysis at MTC, working directly with major industrial and academic partners to solve real-world operational challenges. His expertise spans the complete lifecycle of digital systems, with a particular focus on practical implementation and design for long-term sustainability and benefit.

Kyle Marshall, Rolls-Royce

After completing a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Sheffield and an EngD project at the AMRC, I have been working for Rolls-Royce since 2018. My role involves providing cradle to grave materials engineering support, working on Critical Rotating components manufactured from Titanium and Nickel alloys, supporting new component production, aftermarket activities and technology development. Surface integrity generated through machining and post machining-processing heavily influences the lives of safety critical components in the gas turbine engine, this has therefore been my chosen research area of interest for a number of years.

Georgia Schneider, TWI

Georgia Schneider is a statistician and engineer in the Fracture and Fatigue Integrity Management section of TWI, a post she has held for three years. Her expertise lies in statistical modelling, with a particular focus on the distributions and correlations of inputs to probabilistic ECAs. Georgia holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of York, and a first-class MMath degree from the University of Durham.

Matthew Brown, AMRC

Matthew is Technical Fellow for Zero Defect Machining within The Machining Group at the AMRC. He manages a research portfolio which includes topics such as verification of machining processes and machine tools, integration of inspection methods on-machine, development of novel component verification methods, machining science and measurement systems analysis. He also supervises PhD projects in surface integrity and its characterisation. Matthew is lead inventor for a non-destructive X-Ray diffraction (XRD) inspection method for detecting machining-induced microstructural defects.

Frances Livera, UKAEA
Frances Livera is a Senior Manufacturing Engineer in the Manufacturing Technology and Equipment Qualification (MTEQ) group at UKAEA. Her research focuses on joining technologies for the delivery of fusion power, with projects spanning various types of welding, solid state bonding, and brazing. Her work contributes to UKAEA-led programmes such as NEURONE (which aims to develop and deliver an industrially scalable fusion-grade advanced steel capable of operating at 650°C in a fusion breeder-blanket environment), as well as manufacturing challenges in the EUROfusion consortium. Frances completed a MChem in Chemistry at the University of York, before completing a PhD entitled ‘Brazing of Additively Manufactured Metals’ as part of the Advanced Metallic Systems CDT.

Robert Hamill, UKAEA
Robert Hamill is a UKAEA Fusion Research Fellow developing novel numerical and experimental techniques within the emerging ‘Material Testing 2.0’ (MT2) framework. By combining full-field strain measurements with inverse modelling, MT2 enables the extraction of richer material data from fewer, more representative tests. Rob completed his MEng in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, before joining the McLaren Automotive graduate scheme. He then completed a PhD in computational and experimental mechanics at the University of Southampton. He now works at UKAEA.