You are correct, and with the current metal AM techniques (DED, SLM), you can also take thermal imaging of the melt pool throughout. From this you can a pretty

You are correct, and with the current metal AM techniques (DED, SLM), you can also take thermal imaging of the melt pool throughout. From this you can a pretty accurate picture of the weld quality across the whole volume. I'm not sure that's sufficient to eschew any other non destructive testing, but it is great information.