A Deep Learning Approach for Defect Detection and Segmentation in X-Ray Computed Tomography Slices of Additively Manufactured Components

Additive manufacturing is an emerging and crucial technology that can overcome the limitations of traditional manufacturing techniques to accurately manufacture highly complex parts. X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) is a widely used method for non-destructive testing of AM parts. However, detection and segmentation of defects in XCT images of AM have many challenges due to contrast, size, and appearance of defects. This study developed deep learning techniques for detecting and segmenting defects in XCT images of AM. Due to a large number of required defect annotations, this paper applied image processing techniques to automate the defect labeling process. A single-stage object detection algorithm (YOLOv5) was applied to the problem of defect detection in image data. Three different variants of YOLOv5 were implemented and their performances were compared. U-Net was applied for defect segmentation in XCT slices. Finally, this research demonstrates that deep learning techniques can improve the automatic defect detection and segmentation in XCT data of AM.