Additive manufacturing of metallic components – Process, structure and properties

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

3D printing of Aluminium alloys: Additive Manufacturing of Aluminium alloys using selective laser melting

Our safety, comfort and peace of mind are heavily dependent upon our capability to prevent, predict or postpone the failure of components and structures on the basis of sound physical principles While the external loadings acting on a material or component are clearly important, There are other contributory factors including unfavourable materials microstructure, pre-existing defects and residual stresses Residual stresses can add to, or subtract from, the applied stresses and so when unexpected failure occurs it is often because residual stresses have combined critically with the applied stresses, or because together with the presence of undetected defects they have dangerously lowered the applied stress at which failure will occur Consequently it is important that the origins of residual stress are understood, opportunities for removing harmful or introducing beneficial residual stresses recognized, their evolution in-service predicted, their influence on failure processes understood and safe structural integrity assessments made, so as to either remove the part prior to failure, or to take corrective action to extend life This paper reviews the progress in these aspects in the light of the basic failure mechanisms

/pdf/residual-stress-and-its-role-in-failure-2ld6sd4vw6.pdf

Residual stress and its role in failure

Manufacturing-oriented topology optimization has been extensively studied the past two decades, in particular for the conventional manufacturing methods, for example, machining and injection molding or casting. Both design and manufacturing engineers have benefited from these efforts because of the close-to-optimal and friendly-to-manufacture design solutions. Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) has received significant attention from both academia and industry. AM is characterized by producing geometrically complex components layer-by-layer, and greatly reduces the geometric complexity restrictions imposed on topology optimization by conventional manufacturing. In other words, AM can make near-full use of the freeform structural evolution of topology optimization. Even so, new rules and restrictions emerge due to the diverse and intricate AM processes, which should be carefully addressed when developing the AM-specific topology optimization algorithms. Therefore, the motivation of this perspective paper is to summarize the state-of-art topology optimization methods for a variety of AM topics. At the same time, this paper also expresses the authors' perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in these topics. The hope is to inspire both researchers and engineers to meet these challenges with innovative solutions.

/pdf/current-and-future-trends-in-topology-optimization-for-7k1902v47j.pdf

Current and future trends in topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Normalised model-based processing diagrams for additive layer manufacture of engineering alloys

Oxidation ahead of a crack tip in an advanced Ni-based superalloy

In this paper the microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stresses are compared for three inertia friction welded nickel-base superalloys. In contrast to alloy 720Li and RR1000, for Inconel 718 welding produces a precipitation free region leading to significantly reduced strength near the weld line. As a result, for alloy 720Li the hoop stresses are 1.5 times, and in RR1000 two times, higher than the tensile hoop stresses for Inconel 718. The maximum tensile weld stresses in Inconel 718 and RR1000 are yield stress limited in the weld region. That stresses significantly below the yield stress are found near the weld for alloy 720Li may be because the inferior creep properties of alloy 720Li compared to RR1000 result in stress relief during cooling after welding. Post weld heat treatment at the standard maximum aging temperature for Inconel 718 (732 °C), relieved residual hoop stresses to below 400 MPa. To achieve a similar level of residual hoop stress, Alloy 720Li must be stress relieved at least 30 °C and RR1000 about 80 °C hotter.

A comparison of inertia friction welds in three nickel base superalloys

This article describes a quantitative study of the microstructure of nickel-based superalloy RR1000 tube structures joined by inertia welding. One as-welded and three post weld heat-treated (PWHT) conditions have been investigated. The samples were characterized mechanically by measuring the hardness profiles and microstructurally in terms of γ grain size, γ′ precipitate size and volume fraction, stored energy, and microtexture. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used to characterize high-angle grain boundaries (HAGB) and the variation of microtexture across the weld line. The coherent γ′ precipitates were investigated over a range of scales on etched samples in a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM), using carbon replicas in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and from thin slices by means of high-energy synchrotron X-rays. Dramatic changes in the microstructure were observed within 2 mm of the weld line. In this region, the hardness profile is influenced by changes in grain size, γ′ volume fraction, γ′ particle size, and the work stored in the material. Further away, the observed hardness variation is still significant although only minor microstructural changes could be observed. In this region, the correlation of microstructure and hardness is less straightforward. Here, a combination of small microstructural changes appears to give rise to a significant change in strength. No significant texture or grain distortion was observed in the extensively plastically deformed region due to recrystallization.

Inertia welding nickel-based superalloy: Part I. Metallurgical characterization

This article describes a comprehensive microstructural characterization of an inertia friction welded joint between nickel-based superalloys 720Li and IN718. The investigation has been carried out on both as-welded and postweld heat-treated conditions. The detailed metallographic analysis has enabled the relation of hardness profiles across inertia-welded alloy 720Li to IN718 and morphological changes of the precipitates present. The work demonstrates that inertia friction welding (IFW) 720Li to IN718 results in a weld free of micropores and microcracks and no significant chemical migration across the weld line. However, substantial differences in terms of grain structure and precipitation phase distribution variations are observed on each side of the dissimilar weld. The high γ′ volume fraction alloy 720Li exhibits a wider heat-affected zone than the mainly γ′′ strengthened IN718. Alloy 720Li displays only a small hardness trough near the weld line in the as-welded condition due to the depletion of γ′, while γ″-strengthened IN718 shows a soft precipitation-free weld region. Postweld heat treatment (PWHT) of the dissimilar weld at 760 °C, a typical annealing temperature for alloy 720Li, results in an overmatch of the heat-affected zone in both sides of the weld. The comparison of the as-welded and postweld heat-treated condition also reveals that IN718 is in an overaged condition after the stress relief treatment.

Gavin J. Baxter

Papers

Normalised model-based processing diagrams for additive layer manufacture of engineering alloys

Oxidation ahead of a crack tip in an advanced Ni-based superalloy

A comparison of inertia friction welds in three nickel base superalloys

Inertia welding nickel-based superalloy: Part I. Metallurgical characterization

Inertia Friction Welding Dissimilar Nickel-Based Superalloys Alloy 720Li to IN718