There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

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

The effect of grain boundary (GB) misorientation on hot tearing susceptibility of directionally solidified (DS) nickel-based superalloys was explored. We found that the castability of second generation nickel-based superalloy CMSX-4 is inferior to DS superalloy IN792, an alloy well known for bad castability. The castability of CMSX-4 is somewhat improved at a higher solidification rate. The hot tearing tendency increases with increasing GB misorientation angle. As feeding tendency becomes greater with increasing misorientation, this points to the importance of GB cohesion for solidification cracking in the alloy. Microstructure investigation reveals that hot tearing is associated with formation of continuous gamma and gamma prime eutectic films at the GB in CMSX-4. We assume that the gamma and gamma prime eutectic, which reflects the remaining liquid at the end of solidification, prevents the impinging dendrite arms from touching and in this way decreases cohesion.

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Effect of grain boundary characteristics on hot tearing in directional solidification of superalloys

A method for predicting the fastest possible homogenization treatment of the as-cast microstructure of nickel-based superalloys is presented and compared with experimental results for the single-crystal superalloy ERBO/1. The computational prediction method is based on phase-field simulations. Experimentally determined compositional fields of the as-cast microstructure from microprobe measurements are being used as input data. The software program MICRESS is employed to account for multicomponent diffusion, dissolution of the eutectic phases, nucleation, and growth of liquid phase (incipient melting). The optimization itself is performed using an iterative algorithm that increases the temperature in such a way that the microstructural state is always very close to the incipient melting limit. Maps are derived allowing describing the dissolution of primary γ/γ′-islands and the elimination of residual segregation with respect to temperature and time.

Optimization of the Homogenization Heat Treatment of Nickel-Based Superalloys Based on Phase-Field Simulations: Numerical Methods and Experimental Validation

Superalloy IN625 with cellular microstructure: Fabrication route and mechanical properties

The role of eutectics in recrystallization in a single crystal nickel-base superalloy - CMSX-4 - was studied by electron backscatter diffraction and electron probe micro-analysis techniques. It was shown that eutectics can initiate recrystallization by a particle stimulated nucleation mechanism which operates in interdendritic regions. During grain growth in the course of recrystallization, eutectics were observed to inhibit the motion of the advancing recrystallization grain boundary. Alternatively, a recrystallization grain boundary can migrate through eutectics by forming a large gamma' phase particle behind the advancing front, either with the same crystal orientation as the eutectic the boundary advances into or, in some cases, with completely new orientations, i.e. neither the same as the eutectic it grows into nor the same as the recrystallized grains surrounding it.

On the role of eutectics during recrystallization in a single crystal nickel-base superalloy - CMSX-4

New diffusion brazing alloys for single crystalline component repair processes were developed and tested. Germanium was used as the melting point depressing element in these binary brazing alloys with germanium contents between 20 to 23 wt.%. Microstructural analysis has shown that the formation of a single crystalline joint was achieved after extended brazing cycles with these brazing alloys. No secondary phases other than the desired γ´ precipitates were detected within the brazing zone. This result was shown for two parent materials, PWA 1483 and Rene N5, a first and a second generation superalloy, respectively. The solidification mechanisms and kinetics were examined and show rather distinct deviations from Transient Liquid Phase Bonding theory for binary systems due to the multicomponent diffusion in the present system. Mechanical testing was performed at room temperature via nanoindentation and at elevated temperatures by hot tensile tests. The nanoindentation results show minor differences in hardness and elastic modulus between brazing joints and parent material. Ultimate tensile strengths of more than 90 % compared to the parent material were obtained in tensile testing at 980 °C.

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Robert F. Singer

Papers

Effect of grain boundary characteristics on hot tearing in directional solidification of superalloys

Optimization of the Homogenization Heat Treatment of Nickel-Based Superalloys Based on Phase-Field Simulations: Numerical Methods and Experimental Validation

Superalloy IN625 with cellular microstructure: Fabrication route and mechanical properties

On the role of eutectics during recrystallization in a single crystal nickel-base superalloy - CMSX-4

New Boron and Silicon Free Single Crystal-Diffusion Brazing Alloys