Search results

Prior to manufacturing, designing plays a vital role in the selection of materials and other design parameters. Therefore, during the deposition of materials, substrate materials provide support and affect the microstructure of the deposits, which may not be desirable in the manufactured product. Hence, the main purpose of the study is to analyse the behaviour of the microstructure at the interface of deposited material and substrate.

In this study, two blocks of Inconel 625 (IN625) and Stainless steel 304L (SS304L) metal powders were deposited on an SS304L substrate using laser directed energy deposition (DED) technique. Deposited blocks comprised 50% IN625 + 50% SS304L or 100% IN625. After deposition, microstructural behaviour at the interface of the deposits and substrates was analysed using different tests such as optical microscopy (OM), microhardness testing, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). An improvement in microstructure was proposed by performing heat treatment of the deposited sample.

Formation of martensite and precipitates at the interface of the deposit and substrate was observed. Formation of martensite and precipitates such as α, carbide and δ phases were observed in OM and SEM images. Due to the formation of these phases, interface regions showed a peak in the hardness graphs. Post-heat treatment of the samples was one of the solutions to resolve these issues.

This paper suggests the formation of a heat-affected zone (HAZ) at the interface of the deposit and substrate, which may negatively affect the overall utility of the deposited part. The properties of the HAZ were investigated. To suppress these detrimental effects, post-heat treatment of the deposited sample was performed, and the samples were further analysed. The post-heat-treated samples exhibited as reduction in HAZ thickness and had more uniform hardness throughout the cross-section compared with the untreated samples.

The purpose of this paper is to detail the design and first use of a force transducer device to study the development of forces during the laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process from which residual stresses can be inferred.

The proposed novel device consists of an array of load cells for in-situ measurement of forces over time during the L-PBF additive manufacturing process. Measurements of the developed forces layer by layer were recorded in a first build using a 67-degree rotating scan strategy using Inconel 625 build material.

Preliminary experimental results from in-situ measurements using a 67-degree rotating scan strategy showed that the forces induced in the first five layers represented approximately 80% of the maximum on completion of the build and were distributed such as to induce concave deformation of the part, i.e. tension in the centre and compression at the edges of the part.

This paper describes a novel device for in-process measurement of the spatial distribution and time-varying nature of the forces induced during the L-PBF process as well as an evaluation of the residual forces following the completion of the build.

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology based on powder bed has been used to manufacture complex geometrical components. In this study, IN625 superalloys were fabricated by high-power fiber laser without cracks, bounding errors or porosity. Meanwhile, the objectives of this paper are to systemically investigate the microstructures, micro-hardness and the precipitated Laves phase of deposited-IN625 under different annealing temperatures.

The effects of annealing temperatures on the microstructure, micro-hardness and the precipitated Laves phase were studied by optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), backscattered electron (BSE) imaging in the SEM and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The thermal stability of the dendritic morphology about IN625 superalloys was investigated through annealing at temperatures range from 1,000°C to 1,200°C.

It is found that the microstructure of deposited-IN625 was typical dendrite structure. Besides, some Laves phase precipitated in the interdendritic region results in the segregation of niobium and molybdenum. The thermal stability indicate that the morphology of dendrite can be stable up to 1,000°C. With the annealing temperatures increasing from 1,000 to 1,200°C, the Laves phase partially dissolves into the γ-Ni matrix, and the morphology of the remaining Laves phase is changing from irregular shape to rod-like or block-like shape.

The heat treatment used on the IN625 superalloys is helpful for knowing the evolution of microstructures and precipitated phases thermal stability and mechanical properties.

Due to the different kinds of application conditions, the original microstructure of the IN625 superalloys fabricated by LAM may not be ideal. So exploring the influence of annealing treatment on IN625 superalloys can bring theory basis and guidance for actual production.

This study continues valuing the fabrication of IN625 by LAM. It shows the effect of annealing temperatures on the shape, size and distribution of Laves phase and the microstructures of deposited-IN625 superalloys.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of printing strategies and processing parameters on wall thickness, microhardness and compression strength of Inconel 718 superalloy thin-walled honeycomb lattice structures manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF).

Two printing contour strategies were applied for producing thin-walled honeycomb lattice structures in which the laser power, contour path, scanning speed and beam offset were systematically modified. The specimens were analyzed by optical microscopy for dimensional accuracy. Vickers hardness and quasi-static uniaxial compression tests were performed on the specimens with the least difference between the design wall thickness and the as built one to evaluate their mechanical properties and compare them with the counterparts obtained by using standard print strategies.

The contour printing strategies and process parameters have a significant influence on reducing the fabrication time of thin-walled honeycomb lattice structures (up to 50%) and can lead to improve the manufacturability and dimensional accuracy. Also, an increase in the young modulus up to 0.8 times and improvement in the energy absorption up to 48% with respect to those produced by following a standard strategy was observed.

This study showed that printing contour strategies can be used for faster fabrication of thin-walled lattice honeycomb structures with similar mechanical properties than those obtained by using a default printing strategy.

Quantitative understanding of the temperatures, gradients and heating/cooling rates in and around the melt pool in laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is essential for simulation, monitoring and controls development. The research presented here aims to detail experiment design and preliminary results of high speed, high magnification, in-situ thermographic monitoring setup on a commercial L-PBF system designed to capture temperatures and dynamic process phenomena.

A custom door with angled viewport was designed for a commercial L-PBF system which allows close access of an infrared camera. Preliminary finite element simulations provided size, speed and scale requirements to design camera and optics setup to capture melt pool region temperatures at high magnification and frame rate speed. A custom thermal calibration allowed maximum measurable temperature range of 500°C to 1,025°C. Raw thermographic image data were converted to temperature assuming an emissivity of 0.5. Quantitative temperature results are provided with qualitative observations with discussion regarding the inherent challenges to future thermographic measurements and process monitoring.

Isotherms around the melt pool change in size depending on the relative location of the laser spot with respect to the stripe edges. Locations near the edges of a stripe are cooled to lower temperatures than the center of a stripe. Temperature gradients are highly localized because of rough or powdery surface. At a specific location, temperatures rise from below the measurable temperature range to above (<550°C to >1100°C) within two frames (<1.11 m/s). Particle ejection is a notable phenomenon with measured ejection speeds >11.7 m/s.

Several works are detailed in the Introduction of this paper that detail high-speed visible imaging (not thermal imaging) of custom or commercial LBPF processes, and lower-speed thermographic measurements for defect detection. However, no work could be found that provides calibrated, high-speed temperature data from a melt-pool monitoring configuration on a commercial L-PBF system. In addition, the paper elucidates several sources of measurement uncertainty (e.g. calibration, emissivity and time and spatial resolution), describes inherent measurement challenges based on observations of the thermal images and discusses on the implications to model validation and process monitoring and control.

The purpose of this paper is to study the functionality of additively manufactured (AM) parts, mainly depending on their dimensional accuracy and surface finish. However, the products manufactured using AM usually suffer from defects like roughness or uneven surfaces. This paper discusses the various surface quality improvement techniques, including how to reduce surface defects, surface roughness and dimensional accuracy of AM parts.

There are many different types of popular AM methods. Unfortunately, these AM methods are susceptible to different kinds of surface defects in the product. As a result, pre- and postprocessing efforts and control of various AM process parameters are needed to improve the surface quality and reduce surface roughness.

In this paper, the various surface quality improvement methods are categorized based on the type of materials, working principles of AM and types of finishing processes. They have been divided into chemical, thermal, mechanical and hybrid-based categories.

The review has evaluated the possibility of various surface finishing methods for enhancing the surface quality of AM parts. It has also discussed the research perspective of these methods for surface finishing of AM parts at micro- to nanolevel surface roughness and better dimensional accuracy.

This paper represents a comprehensive review of surface quality improvement methods for both metals and polymer-based AM parts.

The purpose of this research is to show the characteristics of a Cu–Ti dissimilar interface produced by a wire arc-based additive manufacturing process. The purpose of this research was to determine the viability of the Cu–Ti interface for the fabrication of functionally graded structures (FGS) using the wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process.

This paper used the WAAM process with variable current vis-à-vis heat input to demonstrate multiple Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) and C11000 dissimilar fabrications. The hardness and microstructure of the dissimilar interfaces were investigated thoroughly. The formation of Cu–Ti intermetallic at the Ti64/Cu fusion interface is been revealed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis, while X-ray diffraction was used to identify various Cu–Ti intermetallic phases. The effect of microstructure on interfacial sensitivity and hardness are also investigated.

The formation of CuTi intermetallic and the β-phase transformation in Ti-6Al-4V are found to be heat input dependent. The Cu diffusion length increases as the heat input for Ti64 deposition increases, resulting in a greater Cu–Ti intermetallic thickness. The Cu–Ti interface properties improve when the heat input is less than approximately 250 J/mm or the deposition current is less than 90 A. The microhardness ranges from 55 to 650 HV from the Cu-side to the interface and from 650 to 350 HV from the interface to the Ti-side. Higher current increases interface hardness, which increases brittleness and makes the interface more prone to interfacial cracking.

Nonlinear components are needed for a variety of extreme engineering applications, which can be met by FGS with varying microstructure, composition and properties. FGS produced using the WAAM process is a novel concept that requires further investigation. Despite numerous studies on Ti-clad Cu, information on Cu–Ti interface characteristics is lacking. Furthermore, the suitability of the WAAM process for the development of Cu–Ti FGS is unknown. As a result, the goal of this research article is to fill these gaps by providing preliminary information on the feasibility of developing Cu–Ti FGS via the WAAM process.

Selective laser melting and electron beam melting processes are well-known for the additive manufacturing of metal parts. Metal powder bed fusion (MPBF) is a common term for them. The MPBF process can empower the manufacturing of intricate shapes by reducing the use of special tools, shortening the supply chain and allowing small batches. However, the MPBF process suffers from many quality issues. In literature, several works are recorded for qualification of the MPBF part. The purpose of this study is to recollect those works done for quality control and report their helpful findings for further research and development.

A systematic literature review was conducted to highlight the major quality issues in the MPBF process and its root causes. Further, the works reported in the literature for mitigation of these issues are classified and discussed in five categories: experimental investigation, finite element method-based numerical models, physics-based analytical models, in-situ control using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) methods and statistical approaches. A comparison is also prepared among these strategies based on their suitability and limitations. Additionally, improvements in MPBF printers are pointed out to enhance the part quality.

Analytical models require less computational time to simulate the MPBF process and need a smaller number of experiments to confirm the results. They can be used as an efficient process parameter planning tool to print metal parts for noncritical applications. The AI-ML based quality control is also suitable for MPBF processes as it can control many processing parameters that may affect the quality of the MPBF part. Moreover, capabilities of MPBF printers like thinner layer thickness, smaller beam diameter, multiple lasers and high build temperature range can help in quality control.

This study converts the piecemeal data on MPBF part qualification methods into interesting information and presents it in tabular form under each strategy. This tabular information provides the basis for further quality improvement efforts in the MPBF process.

This study references researchers and practitioners on recent quality control efforts and their significant findings for a better quality of MPBF part.

The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art of laser powder deposition (LPD), a solid freeform fabrication technique capable of fabricating fully dense functional items from a wide range of common engineering materials, such as aluminum alloys, steels, titanium alloys, nickel superalloys and refractory materials.

The main R&D efforts and the major issues related to LPD are revisited.

During recent years, a worldwide series of R&D efforts have been undertaken to develop and explore the capabilities of LPD and to tap into the possible cost and time savings and many potential applications that this technology offers.

These R&D efforts have produced a wealth of knowledge, the main points of which are highlighted herein.

Selective laser melting (SLM) is being investigated by Alstom and IWF due to its flexibility, cost‐ and lead‐time reduction potential for reconditioning of hot gas path components used in today's heavy‐duty gas turbines. This paper aims to address this issue.

Tensile tests as well as relaxation and creep tests were carried out to assess SLM processed IN738LC for use in high temperature applications. To evaluate potential anisotropic material behaviour resulting from the layer‐wise build up process, all specimens were built in two directions: parallel and perpendicular to the build direction, respectively. Furthermore, extensive metallurgical investigations were made to analyse the chemical homogeneity as well as the correlation between microstructure and high temperature properties of SLM processed IN738LC.

Tensile tests showed that strength properties superior to cast IN738LC can be achieved by processing this material by SLM alternatively. Due to differences in grain size, grain orientation as well as γ′size and morphology the relaxation behaviour of SLM specimens is inferior compared to cast material. However, creep tests have shown that values within the lower scatter band of cast material can still be achieved along the build direction.

Very limited knowledge exists regarding the processing of γ′precipitation‐strengthened nickel‐base superalloys by SLM and the resulting high temperature material properties. Layered manufacturing and any lack‐of‐fusion porosity influences them as well as high temperature gradients, occurring during the process. This article presents the latest insights from material testing of selective laser molten IN738LC at elevated temperatures.