Additive manufacturing of metallic components – Process, structure and properties

Freedom of design, mass customisation, waste minimisation and the ability to manufacture complex structures, as well as fast prototyping, are the main benefits of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing. A comprehensive review of the main 3D printing methods, materials and their development in trending applications was carried out. In particular, the revolutionary applications of AM in biomedical, aerospace, buildings and protective structures were discussed. The current state of materials development, including metal alloys, polymer composites, ceramics and concrete, was presented. In addition, this paper discussed the main processing challenges with void formation, anisotropic behaviour, the limitation of computer design and layer-by-layer appearance. Overall, this paper gives an overview of 3D printing, including a survey on its benefits and drawbacks as a benchmark for future research and development.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges

Additive manufacturing of metals

Additive manufacturing (AM), widely known as 3D printing, is a method of manufacturing that forms parts from powder, wire or sheets in a process that proceeds layer by layer. Many techniques (using many different names) have been developed to accomplish this via melting or solid-state joining. In this review, these techniques for producing metal parts are explored, with a focus on the science of metal AM: processing defects, heat transfer, solidification, solid-state precipitation, mechanical properties and post-processing metallurgy. The various metal AM techniques are compared, with analysis of the strengths and limitations of each. Only a few alloys have been developed for commercial production, but recent efforts are presented as a path for the ongoing development of new materials for AM processes.

The metallurgy and processing science of metal additive manufacturing

Many traditional approaches for strengthening steels typically come at the expense of useful ductility, a dilemma known as strength-ductility trade-off. New metallurgical processing might offer the possibility of overcoming this. Here we report that austenitic 316L stainless steels additively manufactured via a laser powder-bed-fusion technique exhibit a combination of yield strength and tensile ductility that surpasses that of conventional 316L steels. High strength is attributed to solidification-enabled cellular structures, low-angle grain boundaries, and dislocations formed during manufacturing, while high uniform elongation correlates to a steady and progressive work-hardening mechanism regulated by a hierarchically heterogeneous microstructure, with length scales spanning nearly six orders of magnitude. In addition, solute segregation along cellular walls and low-angle grain boundaries can enhance dislocation pinning and promote twinning. This work demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing to create alloys with unique microstructures and high performance for structural applications.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1443&context=ameslab_manuscripts

Additively manufactured hierarchical stainless steels with high strength and ductility

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a relatively new additive manufacturing (AM) technology which uses laser energy for manufacturing in a layered pattern. The unique manufacturing process of SLM offers a competitive advantage in case of very complex and highly customized parts having quasi-static mechanical properties comparable to those of wrought materials. However, it is not currently being harnessed in dynamic applications due to the lack of reliable fatigue data. The manufacturing process shows competitive advantages particularly in the aerospace and medical industry in which Ti-6Al-4V is commonly used, especially for high performance and dynamic applications. Therefore, in this exploratory research, high cycle fatigue (HCF) tests were performed for as-built, polished and shot-peened samples to investigate the capability of SLM for these applications. As-built samples showed a drastic decrement of fatigue limit due to poor surface quality (Ra ≈ 13 µm) obtained from the SLM process. Polishing improved the fatigue limit to more than 500 MPa, the typical value for base material. The effect of shot-peening proved to be antithetical to the expected results. In this context, fractographic analysis showed that very small remnant porosity (less than 0.4%) played a critical role in fatigue performance.

High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) Performance of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Processed by Selective Laser Melting

Additive manufacturing technologies are in the process of establishing themselves as an alternative production technology to conventional manufacturing such as casting or milling. Especially laser additive manufacturing (LAM) enables the production of metallic parts with mechanical properties comparable to conventionally manufactured components. Due to the high geometrical freedom in LAM the technology enables the production of ultra-light weight designs and therefore gains increasing importance in aircraft and space industry. The high quality standards of these industries demand predictability of material properties for static and dynamic load cases. However, fatigue properties especially in the very high cycle fatigue regime until 109 cycles have not been sufficiently determined yet. Therefore this paper presents an analysis of fatigue properties of laser additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V under cyclic tension-tension until 107 cycles and tension-compression load until 109 cycles. For the analysis of laser additive manufactured titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V Woehler fatigue tests under tension-tension and tension-compression were carried out in the high cycle and very high cycle fatigue regime. Specimens in stress-relieved as well as hot-isostatic-pressed conditions were analyzed regarding crack initiation site, mean stress sensitivity and overall fatigue performance. The determined fatigue properties show values in the range of conventionally manufactured Ti-6Al-4V with particularly good performance for hot-isostatic-pressed additive-manufactured material. For all conditions the results show no conventional fatigue limit but a constant increase in fatigue life with decreasing loads. No effects of test frequency on life span could be determined. However, independently of testing principle, a shift of crack initiation from surface to internal initiation could be observed with increasing cycles to failure.

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Fatigue Performance of Laser Additive Manufactured Ti–6Al–4V in Very High Cycle Fatigue Regime up to 109 Cycles

Fatigue Performance of laser additive Manufactured Ti-6al-4V in Very high cycle Fatigue regime

Today many challenges lie ahead of the aircraft industry. The increasing competition and shortage of resources raise a
challenge for future manufacturing technologies and lightweight design. A possibility to cope with these circumstances is
the manufacturing technology of Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM). However there are still challenges to cope with
due to the processes novelty, such as the development of further materials, especially lightweight alloys, and new design
approaches. Therefore innovative approaches for material development and lightweight design were created in order to
fully exploit the processes potentials. The material development process is based on an analytical calculation of
temperature distribution versus effective process factors in order to identify acceptable operating conditions for the LAM
process. A novel approach to extreme lightweight design was realized by incorporating structural optimization tools and
bionic structures into one design process. By consequently following these design principles, designers can achieve
lightweight savings in designing new aircraft structure and push lightweight design to new limits.

https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/8065/80650L/Bionic-lightweight-design-by-laser-additive-manufacturing-LAM-for-aircraft/10.1117/12.898525.pdf

Eric Wycisk

Papers

High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) Performance of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy Processed by Selective Laser Melting

Fatigue Performance of Laser Additive Manufactured Ti–6Al–4V in Very High Cycle Fatigue Regime up to 109 Cycles

Fatigue Performance of laser additive Manufactured Ti-6al-4V in Very high cycle Fatigue regime

Bionic lightweight design by laser additive manufacturing (LAM) for aircraft industry

Fatigue Assessment of Laser Additive Manufactured AlSi12 Eutectic Alloy in the Very High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF) Range up to 1E9 cycles