A powder atomization plant for the production of high-quality metal powder for Additive Manufacturing (AM) was developed at SMS group. Low cost and simultaneously highest quality powders are key enablers for AM on its way to the next revolution in manufacturing. SMS strives for highest availability, productivity and yield of the powder atomization process through implementation of data-driven...
Complex metallic structures additively manufactured via laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is an already established technique in this rapidly growing industry branch. However, the development of alloys for field-specific applications and the quality and functionality of the final parts strongly depends on the micro- and nanostructure morphology, crystallography and chemical...
Solvent on Granules 3D Printing (SG-3DP) is a sinter-based additive manufacturing technique allowing the net-shape processing of metal, ceramic and metal-ceramic parts. It consists of growing a green part layer-by-layer by selective solvent jetting on powder-polymer granule beds, which is followed by debinding and sintering. In this work, 3D printed WC-12Co green parts have been processed from...
While Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) has gained significant traction as the most widely used metal additive manufacturing technique both in industrial and scientific applications, the number of well-processable, high-strength aluminium alloys is still limited. This is mainly due to the high solidification cracking tendency of many commercial high-strength aluminium alloys.
Alloys based on...
Additive manufacturing (AM) generates complex multi-scale microstructures in metallic components, differing from conventional microstructures in terms of grain structure, cell substructure, elemental distribution, and residual stress. It is therefore important to analyse AM microstructures across multiple length scales using correlative microscopy techniques to establish comprehensive...
In recent years, the method of additive manufacturing has become more and more important in the production of magnetic materials due to higher demands for miniaturization and complex- shaped magnet parts. With the method of Laser beam- powder bed fusion (LB-PBF), an in- situ alloying process for the additive manufacturing of the Fe-Cr-Co system has been developed. With this novel method that...
It is now widely accepted that there is an urgent need for a test to determine if a powder can be spread in to thin layers, as it must be for powder bed additive manufacturing. There is not yet any accepted or standardised test for this behaviour. Several techniques have been proposed in the last few years, most based on automated film applicators. A layer can be formed using similar settings...
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) facilitates near-net-shape fabrication of geometrically complex tools. This leads to significantly reduced post-processing effort compared to conventional manufacturing, for example in the case of hobbing cutters. However, due to the high carbon equivalent of high-speed steels, cracking of the brittle carbon martensite is very likely during LPBF. In contrast,...
Metal additive manufacturing is gradually being integrated into industrial production lines due to its unique advantages such as design freedom, low raw material wastage and short design-to-market lead time. Despite the many benefits, one huge problem is the property inconsistency among the manufactured products. This could happen between products from different fabrication batches, and...
The provision of the metal raw material (due to a low product yield) and inert gas consumption are the main energy consumers in powder production for additive processes. In standard gas atomization processes, any effort to produce finer powder (to increase product yield) is achieved by increasing inert gas consumption.
In order to decrease the carbon footprint of additively manufactured...
The processing of tool steels by selective laser melting (SLM) is an important additive manufacturing technology that faces a challenge when it comes to the production of high-speed steels. In this work, the successful production of the high-wear resistant M4 high-speed steel (HSS) with a Carbon content above 1.30 m% processed by selective laser melting is demonstrated. By systematic variation...
A continuous growth for high quality metal powders in Additive Manufacturing applications forced INTECO to develop a novel vacuum inert gas atomization system, as standard atomization equipment has not seen major developments or improvements to fulfill the demanding tasks from the industry. The new system is characterized by special features which are supposed to overcome disadvantages of...
Additively manufactured (AM) samples exhibit a pronounced texture formation along the build direction (i.e. along z-axis) that predefines an anisotropic mechanical behavior of the final bulk materials. Consequently, different mechanical properties can be measured in tensile tests along and perpendicular to the build direction, depending on the initial orientation of the sample in the powder...
In Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), a significant amount of metallic powder is not melted by the laser beam. Costs and material yield strongly depend on the ability to reuse metal powder efficiently. However, some of the unfused powder is exposed to high temperatures during the manufacturing process in an imperfectly controlled atmosphere. Therefore, there is a need to study and understand...
Due to the raster heat inputs, steep temperature gradients and rapid cooling, the selective laser melting (SLM) process generally induces high residual stresses heterogeneity across the fabricated parts. In the case of gears, such variations on the teeth flank may have a negative effect on the fatigue behavior. This study analyzes the influence of residual stresses heterogeneity induced by SLM...
Abstract:
Integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach has been pursued since about a decade to reduce the cycle time for the development of new engineered materials and products. During laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) based additive manufacturing techniques residual stresses augmented by phase transformations and cracking during solidification or subsequent heat...
In laser powder bed fusion processes, spreading as dense and fully covered powder layers as possible is of crucial importance for good processability of powders. Poorly covered layers or layers with unappropriated features in it such as for instance elongated, powderless craters in the direction of spreading might result in insufficient quality of the printed parts. The reason for this could...
This study aims to investigate the influence of different process gases on the processing of a Zr-blended aluminum 7075 alloy by laser-based powder bed fusion. Two common gases for this process, argon and nitrogen, are compared. The objective is to study the effect of the gases on crack formation in the bulk material with respect to the possible formation of nitrides. In order to assess this...
Bioresorbable materials for use in medical implants are attracting interest in current research projects. Recent studies show promising results for Zinc-Magnesium (ZnMgx) alloys as biodegradable materials due to the combination of degradation rate and high strength resulting from grain refinement due to magnesium addition. By using Additive Manufacturing (AM), complex scaffold-like structures...
Different aspects of quality assessments for Additive Manufacturing (AM) parts are founded on complicated phenomena governed by intrinsic multi-physical and multi-phase interactions. To investigate the dynamic and fatigue performances of AM parts, variety of techniques including new hybrid physical-data driven scheme have been investigated. Hybrid modelling is one of the new trends in analyses...
Most alloys used in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) are conventional materials, which were designed for specific conventional processes and their constraints. These alloys are not capable to adapt to the special conditions in LPBF process e.g. the rapid solidification and cyclic heat treatments. Therefore, thermodynamic simulations are used to design new alloys for additive manufacturing (AM)....
The rise of additive manufacturing has enabled new degrees of freedom in terms of design and functionality. In this context, this contribution addresses the design and characterization of structural unit cells that are intended as building blocks of highly porous lattice structures with tailored properties. While typical lattice structures are often composed of gyroid or diamond lattices, this...
Plasma Metal Deposition (PMD) is a Direct Energy Deposition (DED) method which allows to fabricate large and heavy parts by using wire or powder as feedstock which are fed into a plasma arc. PMD® allows the building of structures using deposition rates in the kilogram range. Besides the manufacturing of structural parts, the PMD process can be used for the fabrication of integrated cooling...
Stainless steel (SS) of type 316L is one of the go-to materials for metal additive manufacturing (AM), due to its good weldability. As-printed 316L SS made by AM has unconventionally good mechanical properties exhibiting both high strength and high ductility. However, the corrosion resistance is inadequate, and not on par with conventional 316L. Our research team has demonstrated proof of...
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are being widely investigated and being gradually applied for engineering applications. Presently, there is main focus on single material systems deposition, where there are still many issues with process stability and repeatability. However, further huge leap in the field of AM processes development will be design of multiple material – heterogenous...
In the Horizon 2020 project MULTI-FUN, the manufacturing of fully integrated multi-functionalities of metal parts is in the main focus. These functionalities include enhanced active/passive heat management embedded fibre-optical sensing as well as integrated electrical conductivity.
Several additive layer manufacturing technologies are under development to generate both the internal...
During the last 20 years, the terms referring to “Additive Manufacturing” (AM) have evolved significantly. In the early days, reference was made to a process called “rapid prototyping” and “rapid manufacturing” was the consecrated term. This terminology remained even beyond the time in which the community started realising that, in fact, it is not necessarily a rapid process. While fashionable...
Geometric accuracy of parts manufactured by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is deteriorated by powder particles sintered to the part surface as well as excessive melting due to overheating by limited heat flow at sharp contour corners. While the sintered powder particles increase the surface roughness, overheating leads to deviations of the as-built part geometry from the CAD geometry. Use of...
We present new insights into our patented powder layer fusion technology for the additive manufacturing of metal components. Conventional additive manufacturing (AM) systems based on the dominating powder bed fusion technology have made good progress in terms of productivity and build quality, however, the fundamental limitations of this technology such as high powder consumption,...
Additive manufacturing of heat treatable low alloy steels by
Laser beam powder bed fusion (LB-PBF) offers a number of difficulties,
which is the reason why their use in commercial AM is rather limited
today. In the present study, processing of several AISI 4xxx type steels
(Cr-Mn-Mo alloyed) has been studied, and the processing windows have
been defined for 2 different machines, with...
Lithographic additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are based on the concept of photopolymerization and are known for their process inherent high precision and good surface quality compared to other AM techniques. In this work, metallic suspensions comprising a photoreactive binder and 316L powder (50vol%) were used as starting material. After printing, the obtained green parts undergo a...
Carbon-containing ferrous alloys with >0.2 wt.% carbon are considered difficult to weld materials and are thus expected to have poor processability when using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). This is connected to the high cooling rates of L-PBF that result in the formation of martensite and internal residual stresses that create a significant risk of cold cracking within the material. However,...
Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is an established repair process for components such as thin-walled turbine blades. Repair of thin-walled structures encounters several challenges due to the limited heat transfer. If the narrow process window is not met, mechanical properties and geometric accuracy deteriorate. Because of the rising temperature during the LMD process, its parameters usually need...
As Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies mature, the lack of tailored alloys becomes more and more of an obstacle for a widespread application for AM. Alloy development has historically been a costly process taking decades or centuries. In the case of AM, however, new improved alloys have to be developed much faster, calling for time- and resource-efficient alloy development methods. These...
The process-inherent advantages of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) have been exploited for many different applications nowadays, including the production of highly stressed inserts for the Al die-casting industry. However, similar to conventional production routes, performance and lifetime of AM-produced tools are still significantly determined by the specific material properties. Here,...
Inconel 625 is a solid-solution strengthened alloy of great interest for the aerospace and oil and gas industries, due to its good mechanical and corrosion properties, besides microstructure stability up to 540 °C, providing a great potential for the additive manufacturing segment. In this study, Sandvik Osprey Inconel 625 powder, atomized via vacuum induction melting inert gas atomization...
EOS and Linde combined their respective expertise to jointly undertake research in the field of additive manufacturing and material-gas interaction. The aim of this study was to improve AISi10Mg properties according to customer needs. The influence caused by different impurities of the process gas on the generated material quality as well as the influence on the process itself were...
Im Rahmen des Vortrages werden neu entwickelte Hochleistungswerkstoffe der AM Metals GmbH und Ihre Anwendungsfelder im Automobil vorgestellt. Dabei werden die spezifischen Beanspruchungen und Anforderungen anhand beispielhafter 3D Druck Applikationen veranschaulicht. Durch gezielte Legierungs- und Prozessentwicklung wurden Aluminiumwerkstoffe entwickelt, die sowohl das Festigkeitsniveau...
Particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites (PRAMCs) have a great application potential among the aerospace and automotive industries due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. Ceramic particles such as Al2O3, SiC, TiC, etc. are mostly considered as reinforcement for PRAMCs. In comparison with the above-mentioned additives, AlN particles have superior thermal properties, high hardness,...
In contrast to the single-stage process, high deformation degrees can be achieved using multi-stage deep drawing strategies. However, the first forming step already leads to significant changes in the overall sheet metal forming behavior. Temperature changes are caused by friction and plastic deformation in an inhomogeneous manner, which in turn affect the whole subsequent drawing steps and...
- Strategies for the improvement of the overall service lifespan for high pressure die casting dies and the common failure mechanisms that lower this lifespan, like soldering and thermal fatigue behaviour with the correct combination of conventional and additive manufactured materials
- A comparison of conventional hot work tool steels, maraging steels and nickel-based alloys with their...
A popular technique for creating medium to large scale metallic components is Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). This technique melts a metal wire by creating a short-circuit arc between the wire and a workpiece, this short-circuit arc pinches of drop by drop the melted material and is often manipulated by a 5-axis positioner or a robot, to allow non-planar material deposition. Compared...
Additive manufacturing (AM) of cold work tool steel is challenging due to the material’s proneness to thermal cracks and defects. These issues can be reduced by the use of electron powder bed fusion (E-PBF) manufacturing which provides higher build chamber temperature, pre-heating of the build and slower cooling of the builds compared to laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Still, microstructure...
To accurately describe the Selective Laser Melting with the goal to study residual stress development and deformations induced by the manufacturing process is very challenging due to the complex physics of the process. A concentrated, fast moving heat source on a very small scale in intricate patterns, multiphysics and metallurgy combined creates quite a challenge. In this work, methods from...
The Danish industry has been reluctant to adopt Metal AM, despite the enormous potential for tailored and flexible manufacturing. A national granted project called: “AM-LINE 4.0” (2018 – 2021) has paved the way for the Danish manufacturing industry by removing barriers preventing implementation. The project has a total budget of 12M EUR and is a partnership with the leading industrial...
Critical components made of high-performance materials subjected to fatigue
loads have extreme demands on qualification and production control. Additive
Manufacturing is now an increasingly important technology for implementation
of bionic lightweight designs.
Over recent years, a great deal of research work has been carried out on additively manufactured
grade 5/23 titanium (Ti6Al4V) in...
The microstructure of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) processed 18Ni300 differs from that of manufactured using conventional processing routes. The L-PBF steel, due to the non-equilibrium solidification, comprises a cellular/dendritic solidification structure with the presence of intercellular austenite as a result of heavy micro-segregation of alloying elements. On the other hand, the...
Metal Additive manufacturing (AM), opposite to traditional material removal processes but fabricating components by adding melted metal powders or wire feedstock layer by layer, offers maximum product design freedom and is a feasible means to manufacture complex structural components for hard materials. Based on the idea of directed energy deposition (DED), laser metal deposition (LMD)...
Haynes 282 is a creep resistant nickel based superalloy with good weldability. Recently, additive manufacturing of nickel based superalloys are extensively researched for their potential applications in aerospace and power generation sectors. Additive manufacturing (AM) of Haynes 282 is relevant because of its excellent creep resistance and weldability. AM potentially allows us to optimize the...
Additive manufacturing makes it possible to produce highly complex components such as turbine blades with integrated cooling channels directly from a digital 3D CAD model. However, the material selection of nickel-base superalloys for the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process is limited to a few alloys that reveal a high printability, such as IN625 or IN718. These alloys, however, exhibit...
Maraging steels are a class of ultra-high-strength martensitic steels, strengthened by precipitation of intermetallic particles in the Fe-Ni martensite upon aging. Due to their low carbon content, these steels demonstrate excellent weldability and negligible dimensional changes after heat treatment, and hence several types of maraging steels have been developed for laser-based additive...
