The produced specimens were rectangular, 5 mm
3 mm
3 mm, with layer thickness of 50 mm. The specimens
had varying sets of parameters to enable assessment of their
impact on the density of the melted material. Parameter sets
were determined in line with the experimental designs
described below.
The specimens were embedded to prepare metallographic
specimens. The polished specimens were analyzed and
photographed using Olympus OLS4000 confocal microscope
(Fig. 2). The images were converted to monochromatic images
and then the share of black pixels that corresponded to the
pores was calculated and compared to the number of pixels for
the entire analyzed image of sample cross-section, in order to
determine specimen porosity.