E-Mail IMAGE: Neutrons can "see " through metal. Therefore neutron diffraction is an ideal method for measuring residual stress inside of components made by additive manufacturing. The image shows a lattice structure in... view more Credit: Dr. Tobias Fritsch / BAM 3D printing has opened up a completely new range of possibilities. One example is the production of novel turbine buckets. However, the 3D printing process often induces internal stress in the components which can in the worst case lead to cracks. Now a research team has succeeded in using neutrons from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) research neutron source for non-destructive detection of this internal stress - a key achievement for the improvement of the production processes.