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

Metal-based additive manufacturing, or three-dimensional (3D) printing, is a potentially disruptive technology across multiple industries, including the aerospace, biomedical and automotive industries. Building up metal components layer by layer increases design freedom and manufacturing flexibility, thereby enabling complex geometries, increased product customization and shorter time to market, while eliminating traditional economy-of-scale constraints. However, currently only a few alloys, the most relevant being AlSi10Mg, TiAl6V4, CoCr and Inconel 718, can be reliably printed; the vast majority of the more than 5,500 alloys in use today cannot be additively manufactured because the melting and solidification dynamics during the printing process lead to intolerable microstructures with large columnar grains and periodic cracks. Here we demonstrate that these issues can be resolved by introducing nanoparticles of nucleants that control solidification during additive manufacturing. We selected the nucleants on the basis of crystallographic information and assembled them onto 7075 and 6061 series aluminium alloy powders. After functionalization with the nucleants, we found that these high-strength aluminium alloys, which were previously incompatible with additive manufacturing, could be processed successfully using selective laser melting. Crack-free, equiaxed (that is, with grains roughly equal in length, width and height), fine-grained microstructures were achieved, resulting in material strengths comparable to that of wrought material. Our approach to metal-based additive manufacturing is applicable to a wide range of alloys and can be implemented using a range of additive machines. It thus provides a foundation for broad industrial applicability, including where electron-beam melting or directed-energy-deposition techniques are used instead of selective laser melting, and will enable additive manufacturing of other alloy systems, such as non-weldable nickel superalloys and intermetallics. Furthermore, this technology could be used in conventional processing such as in joining, casting and injection moulding, in which solidification cracking and hot tearing are also common issues.

3D printing of high-strength aluminium alloys

Consolidation phenomena in laser and powder-bed based layered manufacturing

A review on selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) of aluminium alloy powders: Processing, microstructure, and properties

The interest for a wider range of usable materials for the technology of selective laser melting (SLM) is growing. In this work, the manufacturing of wrought Al–Cu–Mg parts using SLM technology was systematically investigated. The effect of processing parameters on the density of the deposited Al–Cu–Mg samples was studied. It shows that the laser energy density plays a significant role in the densification behavior of the Al–Cu–Mg powder during the SLM process. The laser energy density value of 340 J/mm3 is found to be the threshold, above which high density samples (99.8%) without imperfections and microcracks can be obtained. The SLMed Al–Cu–Mg part presents a unique layer-wise feature which consisted of an extremely fine supersaturated cellular-dendrites structure. The ultimate tensile strength of 402 MPa and the yield strength of 276 MPa are achieved for the SLMed Al–Cu–Mg part. The combination of grain refinement and solid solution strengthening mechanisms during SLM process are proposed to explain the high mechanical strength.

Selective laser melting of high strength Al–Cu–Mg alloys: Processing, microstructure and mechanical properties

Effect of Zirconium addition on crack, microstructure and mechanical behavior of selective laser melted Al-Cu-Mg alloy

Selective laser melting of Al7050 powder: Melting mode transition and comparison of the characteristics between the keyhole and conduction mode

Microstructure prediction of selective laser melting AlSi10Mg using finite element analysis

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses powders to fabricate 3Dparts directly. The objective of this paper is to perform an experimental investigation of selective laser melted 17-4PH stainless steel. The investigation involved the influence of separate processing parameters on the density, defect, microhardness and the influence of heat-treatment on the mechanical properties. The outcomes of this study show that scan velocity and slice thickness have significant effects on the density and the characteristics of pores of the SLMed parts. The effect of hatch spacing depends on scan velocity. The processing parameters, such as scan velocity, hatch spacing and slice thickness, have effect on microhardness. Compared to the samples with no heat-treatment, the yield strength of the heat-treated sample increases significantly and the elongation decreases due to the transformation of microstructure and the changes in the precipitation strengthening phases. By a combination of changes in composition and precipitation strengthening, microhardness improved.

Haihong Zhu

Papers

Selective laser melting of high strength Al–Cu–Mg alloys: Processing, microstructure and mechanical properties

Effect of Zirconium addition on crack, microstructure and mechanical behavior of selective laser melted Al-Cu-Mg alloy

Selective laser melting of Al7050 powder: Melting mode transition and comparison of the characteristics between the keyhole and conduction mode

Microstructure prediction of selective laser melting AlSi10Mg using finite element analysis

Experimental investigation on selective laser melting of 17-4PH stainless steel