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Eingeladener Vortrag
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Design methodology of vessel produced by L PBF stainless steel using representative specimens
(2022)
This work presents the preliminary results of an ongoing project with a double objective: on the one hand, the characterisation of the mechanical properties against fatigue damage of an additively manufactured 316 stainless steel produced by laser powder bed-based (L-PBF) technology; on the other hand, the implementation of numerical simulation techniques able to predict the mechanical behaviour of the material in order to optimise and reduce the design costs of vessels used in the chemical sector. The current state of the work developed in this research framework allows showing the first batch of experimental results of crack propagation rate (FCGR) and high cycle fatigue (HCF) tests. The geometry of the vessels studied presents three clearly differentiated regions, either in terms of thickness (11-15 mm) or concerning the inclination of the walls to the direction of manufacturing (0º - 45º). The experimental campaign carried out so far allows identifying the differences in behaviour when comparing different extraction locations around the vessel. This is due to the variations in thermal cycles that the deposited material undergoes during the manufacturing process. Therefore, this causes variations in the microstructure which lead to changes in the response of the material. In this work, these differences are analysed qualitatively and quantitatively from the results of FCGR and HCF, thus allowing to locate the regions with the highest risk in terms of structural integrity against fatigue. This preliminary phase together with the numerical simulation of the additive manufacturing process are key to achieving a reliable description and modelling of the material. The latter will make it possible to address the priority aim of this project, involving the manufacture of independent samples whose properties are representative of the original material extracted from the reference vessels. It is, therefore, a comprehensive methodology for the design of additively manufactured components based on the localised fatigue mechanical properties of representative specimens.
La tecnología de fabricación aditiva (AM) continúan progresando y permitiendo alcanzar diseños cada vez más complejos y optimizados. La industria química es uno de los sectores donde componentes AM han adquirido un gran interés. La falta hasta la fecha de una directiva europea que regule la inspección, certificación y aceptación de equipos sometidos a presión hace necesario progresar en esta línea. El objetivo que se persigue en este trabajo es el de desarrollar una metodología de diseño sobre componentes fabricados aditivamente basada en la estimación de vida a fatiga de las zonas más susceptibles de sufrir dicho tipo de fallo. El estudio comprende diversas facetas de análisis, simulaciones numéricas, análisis de la microestructura del material y una extensa campaña experimental. La evaluación de la integridad estructural se realiza aplicando mecánica de fractura. La historia térmica a lo largo del proceso de fabricación determina la microestructura del componente en cada región y, por ende, influye en las propiedades mecánicas en cada una. Se presentan los resultados preliminares de un proyecto de investigación en curso dirigido a la caracterización de propiedades mecánicas en recipientes de presión producidos por fusión láser en lecho de polvo (L-PBF, por sus siglas en inglés) de acero inoxidable 316L. Se detallan los resultados preliminares en términos de velocidad de crecimiento de grietas por fatiga (FCGR), y se comparan los resultados de probetas extraídas de diferentes regiones de los depósitos.
Laser welding is an appropriate technique for joining Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) parts together and to conventional wrought ones. The potential consists of profiting from synergies between additive and conventional manufacturing methods and overcoming the existing limitations of both. On the one hand, L-PBF is a widely spread metal-based additive manufacturing technique suitable for generating complex parts which can present intrinsic designed cavities, conformal cooling channels, and filigree structures contributing to sustainable manufacturing and efficiency-oriented designs. On the other hand, chamber sizes for producing L-PBF parts are limited, and the process is time-consuming. Thus, its employment is not for every geometry justified. Additionally, they are in most cases individual elements of a larger assembly and need to be joined together to conventionally fabricated parts.
The present research suggests laser welding parameters to adequately bond pairs of wrought and L-PBF processed plates and two L-PBF plates of Inconel 718 in butt position. L-PBF samples are printed in three different build-up orientations. Additionally, the influence of as-built L-PBF roughness qualities and usual pre-weld preparations such as edge milling are examined. The effect of normed pre-weld heat treatments is also contemplated. Identified cracks are analyzed by means of EDS in order to confirm the present phases on the areas of interest. EBSD is also employed to obtain a clear depiction of the crystallographic texture and distribution of the hot cracks.
The quality of the weldment was examined according to existing standards. Substantial differences in seam geometry and microstructure across different edge’s surface qualities and build directions of stress relieved L-PBF parts have not been detected. Nevertheless, even if no other irregularities are present in the seam, variability in liquation cracking susceptibility has been confirmed. This defect is prone to happen when parts made of this nickel-based superalloy are welded together when not enough precautions are taken. It has been determined that grain size and ductility of the material before welding play a crucial role and mitigating or intensifying these imperfections. Moreover, recommendations are presented to avoid this potential welding defect.
In-situ monitoring of the Laser Powder Bed Fusion build process via bi- chromatic optical tomography
(2022)
As metal additive manufacturing (AM) is entering industrial serial production of safety relevant components, the need for reliable process qualification is growing continuously. Especially in strictly regulated industries, such as aviation, the use of AM is strongly dependent on ensuring consistent quality of components. Because of its numerous influencing factors, up to now, the metal AM process is not fully controllable. Today, expensive part qualification processes for each single component are common in industry.
This contribution focusses on bi-chromatic optical tomography as a new approach for AM in-situ quality control. In contrast to classical optical tomography, the emitted process radiation is monitored simultaneously with two temperature calibrated cameras at two separate wavelength bands. This approach allows one to estimate the local maximum temperatures during the manufacturing process, thus increases the comparability of monitoring data of different processes. A new process information level at low investment cost is reachable, compared to, e.g., infrared thermography.
Multimaterial structures are a promising solution to reduce vehicle weight and save fuel or electric energy in automotive design. However, thermal joining of steel and aluminum alloys is a challenge to overcome due to different material properties and the formation of brittle intermetallic phases. In this study, a new joining approach for producing overlap line-shaped joints is presented. The lower joining partner (EN AW 5754) is melted by a laser beam, and this melt is displaced into a line-shaped cavity of the upper joining partner (1.0330) by induced Lorentz forces. The melt solidifies in the cavity to a material and form-fitting joint. This approach needs no auxiliary joining elements or filler materials. Previous investigation to produce spot-shaped joints by using this approach showed that quality and reproducibility were limited by known melt pool dynamics of aluminum alloys (keyhole collapses). For line-shaped joints, the melt displacement can take place behind the keyhole. This allows the displacement process to be spatially uncoupled from the influence of keyhole collapses. The study shows that this improved the process stability and the quality of the joint. The created line-shaped joints were microstructurally characterized by transversal sections. Intermetallic phases were identified by electron backscatter diffraction and EDX analysis. The detected intermetallic phases consist of a 5–6 μm compact phase seam of Al5.6Fe2 and a needle-shaped phase of Al13Fe4. Tensile shear tests were carried out to quantify the load capacity. It was possible to create a joint with a load capacity of about 2 kN.
Der Vortrag stellt nach einer kurzen allgemeinen Einleitung zur additiven Fertigung und des Laser Powder Bed Fusion Verfahrens einige Herausforderungen vor, die derzeitig den Einsatz von AM-Komponenten in sicherheitsrelevanten Anwendungen erschweren. Abschließend werden zwei Beispiele von Arbeiten der BAM gezeigt, die zur Überwindung dieser Herausforderungen beitragen können.
When it comes to higher accuracies, new technologies and real applications in additive manufacturing, there is one topic which cannot be avoided: The material response on the chosen processing parameters and its agreement and correspondence with literature data of the wrought material grade counterpart. In industrial Additive Manufacturing (AM) standards in terms of printing parameters, protection gas atmospheres or powder handling instructions are not obligatory. Therefore, the question must be answered whether the AM process is reproducible and reliable over different printing companies. This was the motivation to realize a round robin test between 8 European printing companies and academic partners. The consortium had printed and tested fatigue and tensile testing bars under plant-specific conditions. A commonly used cast aluminum alloy, AlSi10Mg, was chosen as test material for the PBF-LB/M process. Differences of the results between the partners and the scatter itself were discussed in detail.
When it comes to higher accuracies, new technologies and real applications in additive manufacturing, there is one topic which cannot be avoided: The material response on the chosen processing parameters and its agreement and correspondence with literature data of the wrought material grade counterpart. In industrial Additive Manufacturing (AM) standards in terms of printing parameters, protection gas atmospheres or powder handling instructions are not obligatory. Therefore, the question must be answered whether the AM process is reproducible and reliable over different printing companies. This was the motivation to realize a round robin test between 8 European printing companies and academic partners. The consortium had printed and tested fatigue and tensile testing bars under plant-specific conditions. A commonly used cast aluminum alloy, AlSi10Mg, was chosen as test material for the PBF-LB/M process. Differences of the results between the partners and the scatter itself were discussed in detail.
Heat accumulation during laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of metallic build parts can adversely affect their microstructure and mechanical properties. To study the heat accumulation during 316L steel based parts manufactured by LPBF, a finite element method (FEM) based numerical study is carried out. For the investigation, a computationally efficient FEM based model, where the whole layer is simultaneously exposed to a heat source, is used. The simulation results are compared with experimental results to validate the numerical model. While considering different influencing factors such as volumetric energy density (VED) and inter-layer time (ILT), the FEM model is shown to successfully simulate the process of heat accumulation during LPBF based manufacturing of a cuboidal shaped geometry. It is shown that ILT and VED have a significant effect on heat accumulation. The validated numerical model provides a good basis for the optimization of processing parameters and geometries for a future investigation of a reduction of heat accumulation effects. Furthermore, it can be used to quickly provide preheating boundary conditions for detailed investigations by different model approaches at a finer scale for future studies.
In order to find a resource efficient approach for the fatigue lifetime prediction of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) processed AlSi10Mg material, results of tensile and fatigue tests were compared. The specimens were manufactured with three different L-PBF machines and studied in different heat treatment conditions (as-built, annealed, T6 heat treated). The investigations showed that the high attainable tensile strength properties after the manufacturing process are not beneficial in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) regime. In contrast, the applied heat treatments, which lead typically to a decrease of ultimate tensile strength, improved dramatically the fatigue behavior. Additionally, a clear correlation between the elongation at fracture and HCF resistance has been found for individual heat treatment conditions. This empiric relationship provides an estimation of the fatigue resistance in the presence of material defects and can be implemented in part and process approvals.
Heterogene Fehlstellendichten und Mikrostrukturausbildungen sind große Herausforderungen für den Einsatz des pulverbettbasierten Laserstrahlschmelzens (L PBF) besonders für sicherheitskritische Bauteile. Unter der Vielzahl an Einflussfaktoren auf die Qualität und die mechanischen Eigenschaften von L PBF-Bauteilen hat die Zwischenlagenzeit (ILT) bisher wenig Beachtung gefunden. Sie nimmt ebenso wie die Bauteilgeometrie Einfluss auf die thermische Historie während der Fertigung. Ihr Einfluss auf die intrinsische Vorerwärmung ist in Kombination mit der Bauteilhöhe mittels thermografischer Temperaturmessung untersucht worden. Signifikante Unterschiede in der thermischen Historie konnten dabei mit variierenden Schmelzbaddimensionen, Korngrößen und Fehlstellendichten am Beispiel der austenitischen Stahllegierung AISI 316L in Zusammenhang gebracht werden.
In the automotive industry, the development of electrically powered vehicles has become a major forward-looking topic. For improving the range and thus the efficiency of electric cars, lightweight construction has gained even more importance. In this regard, hot stamping has been established as a suitable and resource efficient process to manufacture high-strength and lightweight body-in-white components. This method combines hot forming and quenching of boron-manganese steel 22MnB5 in a single process step. As a result, complex structures with thin sheet thicknesses and high ultimate tensile strength up to 1500 MPa are generated. However, the use of lubricants is not possible at elevated temperatures, which subsequently leads to high thermo-mechanical tool stresses. As a side effect, high friction and severe wear occur during the forming process, which affect the resulting part quality and maximum tool life. Therefore, the aim of this study is to improve the tribological performance of hot stamping tools by using a laser implantation process. This technique is based on manufacturing highly wear resistant, separated and elevated structures in micrometer range by embedding hard ceramic particles into the tool material via pulsed laser radiation. As a result, highly stressed areas on the tool surface can be modified locally, which in turn influence the tribological and thermal behavior during the forming process. In this regard, laser implanted and conventionally tool surfaces were investigated under hot stamping conditions. A modified pin-on-disk test was used to analyze the friction coefficient and occuring wear mechanisms. Furthermore, quenching tests as well as hardness measurements were carried out to gain in-depth knowledge about the cooling behavior of the modified tool surfaces and its impact to the resulting mechanical part properties.
Within the scope of this work, a laser implantation process has been used, in order to improve the tribological performance of hot stamping tools. This surface engineering Technology enables the generation of dome-shaped, elevated and highly wear resistant microfeatures on tool surfaces in consequence of a localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles via pulsed laser radiation.
As a result, the topography and material properties of the tool and thus the tribological interactions at the blank-die interface are locally influenced. However, a suitable selection of hard ceramic particles is imperative for generating defect-free surface features with a high share of homogenously disturbed particles. For this purpose, different niobium (NbB2 and NbC) as well as titanium-based (TiB2 and TiC) materials were embedded on hot working tool specimens and subsequently analyzed with regard to their resulting shape and mechanical properties. Afterwards, modified pin-on-disk tests were carried out by using conventional and laser-implanted tool surfaces, in order to evaluate the wear and friction behavior of both tooling systems.
In der Automobilindustrie stellt das Presshärteverfahren eine Schlüsseltechnologie zur ressourceneffizienten Herstellung sicherheitsrelevanter Karosserie-komponenten dar. Während der Umformoperation treten jedoch hohe Reibungs- und Verschleißerscheinungen an den interagierenden Werkzeug- und Werkstückwirkflächen auf, die sowohl die Bauteilqualität als auch die Maschinenstandzeit nachhaltig beeinträchtigen. Um die bestehenden Verfahrensgrenzen zu erweitern, wird daher eine Modifikation der Presshärtewerkzeuge mittels Laserimplantation angestrebt. Hierbei werden in die Werkzeugoberfläche keramische Hartstoffpartikel anhand eines gepulsten Laserstrahles eingebettet, infolgedessen kuppelförmige sowie höchstfeste Strukturen im Mikrometerbereich entstehen. Die Auswahl geeigneter Hartstoffmaterialien stellt jedoch ein entscheidendes und bisweilen limitierendes Kriterium dar, um defektfreie sowie verschleißresistente Oberflächenmodifikationen zu generieren. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit unterschiedliche titanbasierte Hartstoffpartikel auf presshärtespezifische Werkzeugstähle laserimplantiert und anschließend mittels modifizierten Pin-on-Disk-Tests hinsichtlich ihres tribologischen Einsatzverhaltens untersucht. Um die Wirksamkeit des Laserimplantationsverfahrens zu evaluieren, wurden zudem Verschleißuntersuchungen an unmodifizierten Werkzeugoberflächen durchgeführt und mit den erzielten Ergebnissen der lokal dispergierten Topographien verglichen.
In order to reduce weight of vehicles, the interest in multi-material-design has been growing within the last few years. For vehicles the combination of steel and aluminium alloys offers the most promising compromise between weight, strength and formability. Thermal joining of these dissimilar materials is still a challenge to overcome. A possible approach is a new joining technology, whereby a combination of laser beam welding and contactless induced electromagnetic forces are used to displace the generated melt of one joining partner into a notch of the other. This paper presents the working principle and shows numerical analyses to improve the understanding of this joining process. The simulations help to calculate the thermal development of the joining partners, which is important for the formation of intermetallic phases. Furthermore, the calculation of the time required for a complete displacement is possible. The numerical results are validated by experimental results.
Additive manufacturing processes are increasingly being used in industrial applications. Especially powder bed fusion processes are of high interest due to their capability to economically produce individual, highly complex and functionally integrated components in small batches.
However, the quality assurance of these components remains a challenge. Internal defects and undesirable microstructures and surface conditions can deteriorate the mechanical properties. Especially for use in safety-relevant applications, new design and inspection concepts are needed that take these factors into account.
This talk presents typical defects and microstructure phenomena resulting from the laser powder bed fusion process and identifies challenges and opportunities for non-destructive testing from a manufacturing engineering perspective. In particular, the possibility of a process-integrated quality control is shown based on current research results.
In this presentation we discuss the online monitoring of metallic AM parts produced by the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process by using optical, thermographic and electromagnetic methods. In a first approach we present the detection of defects generated during the process and discuss how to improve these methods for the optimization of design and production of metallic AM parts.
To save weight without affecting the functional properties of vehicles, heavy materials must be replaced with lighter alternatives.Modern lightweight concepts have therefore been developed, featuring multi-material designs that require the joining of dissimilar materials.One new possible approach for the joining of dissimilar metals is based on laser welding and melt displacement by contactless induced electromagnetic forces.
In the automotive industry, hot stamping has been established as a key technology for manufacturing safety-relevant car body components with high strength-to-weight ratio. However, hot stamping tools are stressed by cyclic thermo-mechanical loads, which leads to severe wear and high friction during the forming operation. Consequently, the quality of the parts, the durability of the tools and the efficiency of the process are negatively affected. Within the scope of this work, a promising approach named laser implantation process has been investigated for improving the tribological behavior of hot stamping tools. This technique enables the fabrication of highly wear resistant, separated and elevated micro-features by embedding hard ceramic particles into the tool via pulsed laser radiation. Hence, highly stressed tool areas can be modified, which influences the thermal and tribological interactions at the blank-die interface. To clarify these cause-effect relations, numerical simulations, quenching tests as well as tribological investigations have been conducted. In this context, laser-implanted tools reveal a significantly improved tribological performance while offering the possibility to adjust the thermal properties within hot stamping. Based on these results, a tailored tool modification can be pursued in future research work, in order to enhance the effectiveness of hot stamping tooling systems.
Within the group of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for metals, laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) has a leading position. Nevertheless, reproducibility of part properties has not reached sufficient maturity hindering the use for industrial applications especially for safety-relevant components. This article presents the results of various experimental tests performed with the aluminium alloy AlSi10Mg identifying reasons for the high deviations in mechanical properties. Herein, it is discussed how microstructure is influenced by different process parameters (laser power, scanning speed, energy density, building height) and how it can be adjusted by suitable post process heat treatments. The impact of resulting changes in microstructure is shown by monotonic tensile and cyclic fatigue tests considering specimens manufactured with different L-PBF machines.
Laser powder bed fusion is used to create near net shape metal parts with a high degree of freedom in geometry design. When it comes to the production of safety critical components, a strict quality assurance is mandatory. An alternative to cost-intensive non-destructive testing of the produced parts is the utilization of in-situ process monitoring techniques. The formation of defects is linked to deviations of the local thermal history of the part from standard conditions. Therefore, one of the most promising monitoring techniques in additive manufacturing is thermography. In this study, features extracted from thermographic data are utilized to investigate the thermal history of cylindrical metal parts. The influence of process parameters, part geometry and scan strategy on the local heat distribution and on the resulting part porosity are presented. The suitability of the extracted features for in-situ process monitoring is discussed.
The safe fatigue design of metallic components fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM) is still a largely unsolved problem. This is primarily due to (a) a significant inhomogeneity of the material properties across the component; (b) defects such as porosity and lack of fusion as well as pronounced surface roughness of the asuilt components; and (c) residual stresses, which are very often present in the as‐built parts and need to be removed by post‐fabrication treatments. Such morphological and microstructural features are very different than in conventionally manufactured parts and play a much bigger role in determining the fatigue life. The above problems require specific solutions with respect to the identification of the critical (failure) sites in AM fabricated components. Moreover, the generation of representative test specimens characterized by similar temperature cycles needs to be guaranteed if one wants to reproducibly identify the critical sites and establish fatigue assessment methods taking into account the effect of defects on crack initiation and early propagation. The latter requires fracture mechanics‐based approaches which, unlike common methodologies, cover the specific characteristics of so‐called short fatigue cracks. This paper provides a discussion of all these aspects with special focus on components manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (L‐PBF). It shows how to adapt existing solutions, identifies fields where there are still gaps, and discusses proposals for potential improvement of the damage tolerance design of L‐PBF components
Mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and tensile elongation of parts manufactured with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) can differ significantly after the building process limiting the advantage of production flexibility of that technology. At this background, the present work investigated the influence of post process heat treatments (HT) on microstructure, hardness, and tensile properties of AlSi10Mg specimens in different As-built (AB) conditions. For this purpose, two superordinate aspects were covered within this study. Firstly, various HTs were performed on specimens built-up with the same L-PBF machine applying the same parameter set-up. Results of tensile tests and hardness measurements were discussed considering the microstructural changes examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy as well as X-ray diffraction, and gathered in a material data map. Based on the observed microstructural changes and a calculated quality index which comprises strength and ductility properties, three HTs were selected for the second part of this work. Therein, the effect of these HTs on specimens fabricated with overall three L-PBF machines working with different raw materials, process parameters, and build-up strategies was studied. Specimens characterization included porosity measurements, the evaluation of material defects, microstructure analysis via SEM, hardness measurements, and tensile tests. It was found that strength properties in the AB condition revealed appreciable deviations: Values of yield strength and ultimate tensile strength were from 228 to 292 MPa and from 346 to 484 MPa, respectively. Whereas heat treated specimens at 300 °C for 0.5 as well as 2 h only exhibited slight differences in strength, a complete homogenization of strength properties was obtained after conducting a T6 HT. Nevertheless, ductility was not homogenized after heat treating caused by the presence of material defects such as keyhole pores and lack of fusion defects. It was shown that even slight differences in porosity determined in cross-sections can significantly affect ductility properties.
One of the main advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) is the possibility to manufacture complex near-net-shape components. Therefore, the PBF-LB/M process is becoming increasingly important for the manufacturing and repair of gas turbine blades. Despite the great freedom in design, there are also limitations to the process. Manufacturing overhangs or bridging voids are some of the main challenges. In the conventional PBF-LB/M process, overhangs with angles up to 45° can be manufactured. However, gas turbine blades feature voids for cooling, which have to be bridged when using PBF-LB/M. In this work, different concepts for bridging voids are developed for future application in gas turbine blade repair. For this purpose, a test geometry is derived from the tip area of a gas turbine blade as a reference. By changing the initial geometry of the reference body, different designs for bridging voids are developed based on the PBF-LB/M requirements. Subsequently, these distinct designs are manufactured by PBF-LB/M. The different approaches are compared with respect to their volume increase. In addition, the specimens are visually inspected for warpage, shrinkage and imperfections by overheating. Out of the seven concepts developed, three concepts can be recommended for gas turbine blade repair based on low volume increase, distortion and shrinkage.
Environmental protection, resource conservation and CO2 reduction require new joining concepts for effective multi-material design in automotive lightweight construction. The thermal joining of dissimilar materials, especially the combination of aluminum alloys and steel, is associated with difficulties. Different material properties, such as melting point and coefficient of thermal expansion, complicate joining processes. Furthermore, the insolubility between these materials results in the formation of intermetallic phases. These brittle phases reduce the load-bearing capacity and quality of the joints. The thickness of the intermetallic phases should not reach the critical value of 10 μm to ensure good mechanical properties of the joint. It is known that a two-phase reaction layer consisting of Al5Fe2 and Al3Fe (also known as Al13Fe4) forms at the interface between solid steel and liquid aluminum. Due to high cooling rates, as it is the case in laser beam welding, metastable intermetallic compounds can form different from the equilibrium state. The formation of the intermetallic reaction layer is a diffusion-controlled process. So, it is only possible to control the growth of these phases. This problem has led to use joining methods that do not require the melting of both joining partners. A promising joining method is laser beam welding-brazing, whereby only one joining partner is melted and wets the solid joining partner. Conventional laser beam welding-brazing only results in material-fit joints and often requires the use of expensive filler materials. An additional form-fit could optimize the mechanical performance of the joint. For this reason, a new joining method for overlap configurations of dissimilar materials was developed. A laser beam melts the lower joining partner through a cavity of the upper joining partner. The created melt pool is moved upwards into the cavity of the upper joining partner due to contactless induced Lorentz forces of an AC-magnetic system. The displaced melt creates a form- and material-fit joint after solidification. The advantage of this joining technology is the absence of filler materials, flux agents and expensive auxiliary joining elements.
With regard to efficient production, it is desirable to combine the respective advantages of additively and conventionally manufactured components. Particularly in the case of large-volume components that also include filigree or complex structures, it makes sense to divide the overall part into individual elements, which afterwards have to be joined by welding.
The following research represents a first step in fundamentally investigating and characterizing the joint welding of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) components made of Inconel 718. For this purpose, bead-on-plate welds were performed on plates manufactured using the L-PBF process and compared with the conventionally manufactured material. Conventional laser beam welding was used as welding process. The weld geometry was investigated as a function of the L-PBF build-up orientation. It was found that the welding depth and weld geometry differ depending on this orientation and in comparison to the conventional material.
Micrometric surface topologies are required for a wide range of technical applications. While lowered surface features have been used for many years to improve the tribological behavior of contacting surfaces, there are also other fields of application, where the potential of elevated surface features is known, e. g. for metal forming tools. However, the demand for a high wear resistance of these structures often inhibits an industrial application. A solution is offered by structuring techniques that use additional material. A promising approach is the localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation, the so-called laser implantation. This paper describes the potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of laser implanted surfaces by means of microstructural and topological investigations. Afterwards, results of a wear test are given. It can be shown that dome-shaped or ring-shaped structures on a micrometric scale can be produced with high hardness and wear resistance.
The paper describes an experimental investigation of high power laser beam welding with an electromagnetic weld pool support for up to 20 mm thick plates made of duplex steel (AISI 2205) and mild steel (S235JR). The results of the welding tests show a successful application of this technology at ferromagnetic metals. Irregular sagging was suppressed successfully. An ac-power of less than 2 kW at oscillation frequencies between 800 Hz and 1.7 kHz is necessary for a full compasation of the hydrostatic pressure. Thus, it was demonstrated that the electromagnetic weld pool support is not only limited to non-ferromagnetic metals like austenitic steels. For future studies with duplex steel, the use of filler material has to take into account with regard to the balance of the mixed austenitic and ferritic phases.
Micrometric surface topologies are required for a wide range of technical applications. While lowered surface features have been used for many years to improve the tribological behavior of contacting surfaces, there are also other fields of application, where the potential of elevated surface features is known, e. g. for metal forming tools. However, the demand for a high wear resistance of these structures often inhibits an industrial application. A solution is offered by structuring techniques that use additional material. A promising approach is the localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation, the so-called laser implantation. This paper describes the potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of laser implanted surfaces by means of microstructural and topological investigations. Afterwards, results of a wear test are given and different applications for this structuring technique are discussed. It can be shown that dome-shaped or ring-shaped structures on a micrometric scale can be produced with high hardness and wear resistance.
Skin-pass rolling is a substantial process step in the production line of sheet material for automotive applications. Textured rolls are used to emboss an immaterial surface structure on sheets for improving their formability in subsequent deep drawing operations. In this paper, state of the art techniques for texturing skin-pass rolls are discussed in order to assess their ability to meet optimal tribological parameters. Two main problems are identified: firstly, structured rolls are affected by ongoing wear limiting the operating time and necessitates perpetual maintenance. Secondly, state of the art techniques are not able to exploit the theoretically known potential of immaterial surface structures for enabling micro-lubrication mechanisms due to geometrical inadequacies.
Based on these findings, a new approach for texturing of skin-pass rolls is introduced. The technique uses a localised dispersing of hard ceramic particles by use of pulsed laser radiation. It is shown in this paper that this technique allows the creation of elevated structures with high hardness on the surface of 1.2379 cold-working steel. The wear behaviour of such textured rolls was investigated in a lubricated twin-disc-test. The experiments show that no significant wear of the laser produced structures occur during the test duration. The observed results lead to the assumption that the proposed technique allows the creation of skin-pass roll structures with significantly higher durability.
Micrometric surface topologies are required for a wide range of technical applications.
While lowered surface features have been used for many years to improve the tribological behavior of contacting surfaces, there are also other fields of application, where the potential of elevated surface features is known, e. g. for metal forming tools. However, the demand for a high wear resistance of these structures often inhibits an industrial application. A solution is offered by structuring techniques that use additional material. A promising approach is the localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation, the so-called laser implantation. This paper describes the potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of laser implanted surfaces by means of microstructural and topological investigations. Afterwards, results of a wear test are given and different applications for this structuring technique are discussed. It can be shown that dome-shaped or ring-shaped structures on a micrometric scale can be produced with high hardness and wear resistance.
Das bislang zur Vermeidung unzulässiger Wurzelüberhöhungen beim Laserstrahlschweißen von Aluminiumlegierungen bzw. austenitischem Stahl eingesetzte Verfahren der elektromagnetischen Schmelzbadstütze konnte innerhalb der vorliegenden Untersuchung erfolgreich zur Kompensation des hydrostatischen Druckes von ferromagnetischen Stählen übertragen werden. Es wurden dabei Laserstrahlschweißversuche in PA-Position an bis zu 20 mm dickem Duplexstahl 1.4462 sowie Baustahl S235JR durchgeführt. Unter konstanten Schweißparametern wurden Durchschweißungen generiert. Dem hydrostatischen Druck wurde unter Verwendung der Technologie zur elektromagnetischen Schmelzbadunterstützung durch Variation der Oszillationsfrequenz und der AC-Leistung des Magnetsystems entgegengewirkt.
Zunächst konzentrierten sich die Versuche auf den Duplexstahl 1.4462, welcher jeweils aus 50 % Ferrit und Austenit besteht. Hierbei konnte festgestellt werden, dass zur idealen Kompensation von 15 mm bei einer Frequenz von 1,7 kHz eine AC-Leistung von 1,6 kW erforderlich ist, die Schweißnähte aber bereits bei einer AC-Leistung von ca. 0,8 kW in die Bewertungsgruppe B der DIN EN ISO 13919-1:1996-09 eingeordent werden können. Zur idealen Kompensation des hydrostatischen Druckes bei 20 mm dickem Duplexstahl war eine um 20 % höhere AC-Leistung notwendig. Im Anschluss an die Versuche mit dem Duplexstahl wurden die Untersuchungen auf bis zu 20 mm dicke Proben aus Baustahl S235JR erweitert. Für 15 mm konnten die Schweißnähte bei einer Frequenz von 1,7 kHz ab einer AC-Leistung von 1,3 kW in die Bewertungsgruppe B eingeordnet werden. Zur idealen Kompensation von 20 mm dickem Baustahl war eine AC-Leistung von 1,6 kW bei einer Frequenz von 636 Hz nötig. Mit steigender AC-Leistung konnte in allen Versuchsreihen eine sukzessive Verringerung
der Wurzelüberhöhung demonstriert werden.
The additive manufacturing technology of Selective Laser Melting (SLM) experiences a rapid development within an increasing marked of quite different application fields. The properties of SLM materials and structures are influenced by a number of tech-nological parameters such as the metal powder (particle size, homogeneity, cleanliness), the laser tool (power, beam diameter, pulse lengths), the scanning operation (speed, sequence and orientation of melting paths), parameters of the over-all equipment (design and preheating of the base plate, currents and turbulence in the protective gas atmosphere) and, last not least, the hatching strategy including the build-up direction of the structure with respect to the loading direction of the component.
For the perspective use of SLM structures as load carrying, safety-relevant components the knowledge of their mechanical properties is necessary. It is essential to understand these in the context of the manufacturing-related features and at the back-ground of the basic characteristics of metallic materials: crystal lattice, microstructure and material defects. The paper provides an overview on factors which affect the mechanical parameters stiffness, strength, ductility, toughness, fatigue crack propagation and fatigue strength in the context of selective laser melting.
Laser metal deposition (LMD) has been applied as a coating technology for many years. Today, the technologies capacity to produce 3D depositions leads to a new field of application as additive manufacturing method. In this paper, 3D laser metal deposition of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is studied with special regard to the demands of additive manufacturing. Therefore, only the coaxial LMD powder nozzle is used to create the shielding gas atmosphere, which ensures high geometric flexibility. Furthermore, specimen with high aspect ratio and hundreds of layers are manufactured, which represent typical features in additive manufacturing. The presented study contains the following steps: First, cylindrical specimens are manufactured with a standard shell-core build-up strategy and mechanical properties as well as fracture mechanisms are determined. Based on the results, experiments are conducted to improve the build-up strategy and new tensile test specimens are built with the improved strategy. The improved strategy incorporates variable track overlap ratios to achieve a constant growth in the shell and core area. As blanks, lean cylinders comprising more than 240 layers and a height of more than 120mm are manufactured. The specimens are analyzed by X-ray inspection for material defects. Fractured surfaces are observed via scanning electron microscopy and the composition of the surfaces is determined using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The tensile test results prove mechanical properties close to ASTM F1108 specification for wrought material.
Over the last years, the weight of modern car bodies has risen significantly due to the increasing customers’ demand for comfort and safety equipment. However, this ongoing trend leads to an increasing fuel consumption and thus to higher carbon dioxide emissions. In order to counteract these problems, hot stamping has been established in the automotive industry as a key technolo-gy for lightweight construction, regarding the manufacturing of safety-relevant car body compo-nents. Hot stamped parts are commonly made out of boron-manganese steel 22MnB5, which is initially austenized and subsequently formed and quenched in one process step. As a result, geo-metrical complex structures with an ultimate tensile strength of 1500 MPa are generated. The surfaces of the workpieces are coated with an Al-Si layer to avoid oxide scale formation and to ensure corrosion protection. However, the coating system leads to an increased adhesive wear on the tool surface due to the high thermo-mechanical tool stresses. Therefore, a time and cost con-suming rework of the hot stamping tools is required. The aim of this study is to increase the tribological performance of hot stamping tools by using a laser implantation process. This tech-nique allows the ma-nufacturing of separated, elevated and dome-shaped microstructures on the tool surface in consequence of a localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation. The generated surface features offer great potential for reducing the tribological load, due to their high hardness and wear resistance. For this purpose, the friction coefficient of un-modified and laser implanted tool surfaces were examined and compared by using a modified pin-on-disk test. In addition, the surfaces were analyzed by optical measurements in order to quantify the amount of wear.
Within the scope of this work, a new surface engineering technology named laser implantation has been investigated, in order to improve the tribological performance of hot stamping tools. This technique is based on manufacturing highly wear-resistant, separated, and elevated microfeatures by embedding hard ceramic particles into the tool surface via pulsed laser radiation.
Hence, the topography and material properties of the tool are modified, which influences the thermal and tribological interactions at the blank-die interface. To verify these assumptions and to clarify the cause–effect relations, different titanium-based particles (TiB2, TiC, TiN) were laser-implanted and subsequently analyzed regarding to their geometrical shape and mechanical properties. Afterwards, quenching tests as well as tribological experiments were carried out by using titanium-diboride as the most promising implantation material for reducing the tribological load due to high hardness value of the generated implants. Compared to conventional tooling systems, the modified tool surfaces revealed a significantly higher wear resistance as well as reduced friction forces while offering the possibility to adjust the thermal interactions at the blank-die interface. Based on these results, a tailored tool surface modification can be pursued in future research work, in order to enhance the effectiveness of the hot stamping technology.
Material qualification for laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) processes are often based on results derived from additively manufactured (AM) bulk material or small density cubes, although it is well known that the part geometry has a tremendous influence on the heat flux and, therefore, on the thermal history of an AM component. This study shows experimentally the effect of simple geometrical obstructions to the heat flux on cooling behavior and solidification conditions of 316L stainless steel processed by L-PBF. Additionally, it respects two distinct inter layer times (ILT) as well as the build height of the parts. The cooling behavior of the parts is in-situ traced by infrared (IR) thermography during the built-up. The IR signals reveal significant differences in cooling conditions, which are correlated to differences in melt pool geometries. The acquired data and results can be used for validation of computational models and improvements of quality assurance.
A finite element method based three-dimensional heat transfer model with adaptive remeshing is presented to simulate the building of multiple tracks and layers in laser powder bed fusion of metallic powders with enhanced computational competence. A dimensional analysis is undertaken to define the heat source dimensions as function of laser parameters and properties of alloy powder. The computational model is used to calculate the melt pool cross sections for multiple combinations of laser power and scanning velocities considering multi-track-multi-layer builds of SS316L powder. The computed results are verified extensively with the corresponding experimentally measured ones. The model is utilized further to examine its ability to predict defects such as melt track discontinuity and incomplete fusion between neighboring tracks and layers. Overall, the adaptive remeshing and the proposed heat source expression could significantly enhance the model competence by reducing the computational time and memory while maintaining the accuracy of results in simulating laser powder bed fusion of multiple tracks and layers.
The control of friction and wear is a major concern in many industrial applications. A promising method for tailored surface modification is the so-called laser implantation technique. This method combines surface texturing and material optimization in one processing step by a localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles using pulsed laser radiation. Wear resistant, protruding micrometric features (implants) with defined geometry can be created in a deterministic pattern where needed on highly stressed surfaces, i.e., on forming or cutting tools.
However, in order to maintain the implants over the tool’s lifetime, a suitable selection of hard ceramic particles is a prerequisite. They must provide a defect-free metal matrix composite with a high share of homogeneously distributed particles and, especially, high implant hardness. In this study, TiN, TiC, and TiB2 hard particles were compared as implant materials for the first time. By a systematic variation of pulse power and pulse duration, their dispersing behavior and influence on the material properties of AISI D2 tool steel were investigated.
Although all powder materials had grain sizes smaller than 10 μm, it was possible to disperse them by pulsed laser radiation and to obtain defect-free protruding implants. The highest share of dispersed particles (∼64%) was observed for TiB2. By scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, it was also shown that a significant share of the preplaced particles was dissolved by the laser beam and precipitated as nanometer sized particles within the matrix during solidification. These in situ formed particles have a decisive influence on the material properties. While the TiN and TiC implants have shown maximum hardness values of 750 and 850 HV1, the TiB2 implants have shown the highest hardness values with more than 1600 HV1. By x-ray diffraction, it was possible to ascribe the lower hardness values of TiC and TiN implants to high amounts of retained austenite in the metal matrix. By implanting TiB2, the formation of retained austenite was successfully suppressed due to the in situ formation of TiC particles, which was proven by electron backscatter diffraction.
In conclusion, all the implant materials are basically suitable for laser implantation on AISI D2 tool steel. However, TiB2 has shown
the most promising results.
The aim of this study is to increase the tribological performance of hot stamping tools by using a laser implantation process. This technique allows the fabrication of separated, elevated and dome-shaped microfeatures on the tool surface in consequence of a localized dispersing of ceramic particles via pulsed laser radiation. Hence, the topography and material properties of the tool are modified, which influences the tribological interactions at the blank-die interface. However, an appropriate selection of ceramic particles is an essential prerequisite, in order to obtain tailored and highly wear resistant surface features. In this regard, different titanium-based hard particles (TiB2 and TiN) were laser-implanted on hot working tool specimens and subsequently tested by means of a modified pin-on-disk test regarding to their wear and friction behavior.
The control of friction and wear is a major concern in many industrial applications. A promising method for a tailored surface modification is the so-called laser implantation technique. This method combines surface texturing and material optimization in one processing step by a localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles using pulsed laser radiation. Wear resistant, protruding micrometric features (implants) with defined geometry can be created in deterministic pattern where needed on highly stressed surfaces, i.e. on forming or cutting tools. However, in order to maintain the implants over the tool’s lifetime, a suitable selection of hard ceramic particles is a prerequisite. They must provide a defect-free Metal Matrix Composite with a high share of homogeneously distributed particles and especially a high implant hardness.
In this study TiN, TiC and TiB2 hard particles were compared as implant materials for the first time. By a systematic variation of the pulse power and pulse duration, their dispersing behavior and influence on the material properties of AISI D2 tool steel was investigated. Although all powder materials had grain sizes smaller than 10 µm, it was possible to disperse them by pulsed laser radiation and to obtain defect-free protruding implants. The highest share of dispersed particles (~64 %) was observed for TiB2. By scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, it was also shown that a significant share of the pre-placed particles was dissolved by the laser beam and precipitated as nanometer sized particles within the matrix during solidification. These in-situ formed particles have a decisive influence on the material properties. While the TiN and TiC implants have shown maximum hardness values of 750 HV1 and 850 HV1, the TiB2 implants have shown the highest hardness values with more than 1600 HV1. By X-ray diffraction, it was possible to ascribe the lower hardness values of TiC and TiN implants to high amounts of retained austenite in the metal matrix. By implanting TiB2, the formation of retained austenite was successfully suppressed due to the in-situ formation of TiC particles, which was proven by electron backscatter diffraction. In conclusion, all the implant materials are basically suitable for laser implantation on AISI D2 tool steel. However, TiB2 has shown the most promising results.
The potential of lowered surface features as well as the application of wear resistant coatings have been known for many years to improve the tribological behavior of forming tools. More recent studies also discuss the capability of protruded microfeatures for adjusting the tribological behavior between contacting surfaces. The demand for a high wear resistance of such structures as well as their economical and reliable production, however, often limits the industrial application. The laser implantation process can overcome these limitations. In contrast to conventional cw-laser dispersing processes, where the formation of uniform metal matrix composite layers is intended, this surface engineering technique aims to improve the tribological behavior of contacting surfaces by a localized dispersing of pre-placed hard ceramic particles. This enables the formation of deterministic textures composed of separated wear resistant dome- or ring-shaped microstructures (implants).
Since TaC shows very promising material properties for improving the wear resistance of tools exposed to severe operating conditions, this paper analyzes its suitability for pulsed laser implantation on X38CrMoV5-3 tool steel for the first time. In the experiments, the influence of the particles and the laser parameters (pulse power, pulse duration and focal diameter) on the material properties of the localized dispersed zones was studied by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The composite´s (micro-) hardness was measured and calculated by using a rule of mixture. Additionally, the influence of the laser parameters and the TaC particles on the geometrical properties of the implants was studied by optical microscopy and white light interferometry.
The results showed that defect-free implants with hardness values of ~900 HV1 can be obtained at the focal spot, since a localized dispersing of the TaC particles is possible using a pulsed millisecond laser. However, in dependence of the laser intensity, also a partial dissolution of the initial particles occurs. This leads to the precipitation of new dendritic TaC nanoparticles and to varying contents of retained austenite in the matrix. Both effects have a strong influence on the implant hardness and must be considert by the rule of mixture. Regarding the geometrical response it was pointed out that protruded microfeatures with heights up to 10 µm can be created. In comparison to laser remelted zones, the implanted zones showed significantly altered weld pool profiles due to the influence of the particles on the melt convection. A transition of the implant shape from predominantly dome-shaped to predominantly ring-shaped was observed for intensities >1.7∙106 W/cm2 due to the onset of the keyhole effect.
Laser beam welding of aluminum die casting is challenging. A large quantity of gases (in particular, hydrogen) is absorbed by aluminum during the die-cast manufacturing process and is contained in the base material in solved or bound form. After remelting by the laser, the gases are released and are present in the melt as pores. Many of these metallurgic pores remain in the weld seam as a result of the high solidification velocities. The natural (Archimedean) buoyancy is not sufficient to remove the pores from the weld pool, leading to process instabilities
and poor mechanical properties of the weld. Therefore, an electromagnetic (EM) system is used to apply an additional buoyancy
component to the pores. The physical mechanism is based on the generation of Lorentz forces, whereby an electromagnetic pressure is introduced into the weld pool. The EM system exploits the difference in electrical conductivity between poorly conducting pores (inclusions) and the comparatively better conducting aluminum melt to increase the resulting buoyancy velocity of the pores. Within the present study, the electromagnetic supported degassing is investigated in dependence on the laser beam power, welding velocity, and electromagnetic flux density. By means of a design of experiments, a systematic variation of these parameters is carried out for partial penetration laser beam welding of 6mm thick sheets of wrought aluminum alloy AlMg3 and die-cast aluminum alloy AlSi12(Fe), where the wrought alloy serves as a reference. The proportion of pores in the weld seams is determined using x-ray images, computed tomography images, and cross-sectional images. The results prove a significant reduction of the porosity up to 70% for both materials as a function of the magnetic flux density.
Die Laserimplantation erlaubt die Herstellung verschleißbeständiger, erhabener Mikrostrukturen (Implants) auf Stahloberflächen durch ein diskontinuierliches Dispergieren von keramischen Partikeln mittels gepulster Laserstrahlung. Durch die flexible Anordnung separierter Implants zu komplexen Mustern erlaubt das Verfahren eine gezielte Oberflächenstrukturierung zur Beeinflussung des Reibungs- und Verschleißverhaltens. Insbesondere erwies sich Titandiborid (TiB2) als Implantationsmaterial für geeig-net, da eine Manipulation der Implantgeometrie in einem breiten Bereich vorgenommen werden konnte, ohne dass Materialdefekte wie Risse oder Poren auftraten.
Ziel der Untersuchungen war es, den Einfluss implantierter TiB2-Partikel auf die Materialeigenschaften von X153CrMoV12 zu ermitteln. Hierfür wurden im Rahmen der Arbeit die Laserparameter (Pulsleistung und -dauer) in einem breiten Parameterfeld variiert und vergleichende Untersuchungen an TiB2 implan-tierten Zonen sowie an punktuell umschmelzstrukturierten Zonen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine reine Umschmelzstrukturierung zu einer deutlichen Reduktion der Oberflächenhärte aufgrund erhöhter Restaustenitgehalte (γR) führt. Im Gegensatz dazu führt das Laserimplantieren von TiB2-Partikeln zu einer deutlichen Härtesteigerung in den kuppel- oder ringförmigen Implants. Härtewerte von bis zu 1800 HV1 resultieren aus dispergierten TiB2-Primärpartikeln sowie in-situ ausgeschiedenen Se-kundärphasen, durch die der Restaustenitanteil zudem deutlich reduziert wird.
Die Werkstoffeigenschaften im selektiven Laserstrahlschmelz-Verfahren hergestellter Bauteile werden von einer Vielzahl technologischer Parameter beeinflusst, sodass sich die Fertigungsgüte verschiedener Anlagen voneinander unterscheiden kann. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit untersucht, inwiefern sich durch verschiedene nachgelagerte Wärmebehandlungen die Mikrostruktur und die quasistatischen Festigkeitseigenschaften von Proben aus der Aluminiumlegierung AlSi10Mg, die mit verschiedenen Anlagen, Pulvern, Belichtungsstrategien und Prozessparametern gefertigt wurden, harmonisieren lassen. Die Versuche zeigten u.a., dass die erheblichen Festigkeitsunterschiede im Ausgangszustand unabhängig von der angewendeten Wärmebehandlungsroute aufgehoben wurden. Dennoch wurden signifikante Unterschiede in der Duktilität ermittelt. Anhand umfangreicher Bruchflächenanalysen konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass die in der Bruchfläche ermittelte Porosität eine lineare Korrelation zu der Bruchdehnung aufwies.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions, an increasing interest in lightweight construction exists in the automotive industry, especially the multi-material-design approach. The main construction materials here are steels and aluminium alloys. Due to their different physical material properties and limited mutual solubility, these two materials cannot be joined thermally without difficulty. This paper presents a new joining approach for dissimilar materials. It uses electromagnetic displacement of a laser-generated melt pool to produce overlap joints between 1 mm steel (1.0330) and 2 mm aluminium alloy (EN AW 5754). Contactless induced Lorentz forces are generated by an alternating current (AC) magnet system. The controlled displacement of the aluminium alloy melt into the hole of the overlying steel sheet is investigated through numerical and experimental studies. The numerical results are compared with cross sections and thermocouple measurements. For the first time, it is possible to achieve a reproducible controlled melt pool displacement on thin sheets to produce overlap joints between dissimilar materials.
Recording the temperature distribution of the layer under construction during laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is of utmost interest for a deep process understanding as well as for quality assurance and in situ monitoring means. While having a notable number of thermal monitoring approaches in additive manufacturing (AM), attempts at temperature calibration and emissivity determination are relatively rare. This study aims for the experimental temperature adjustment of an off-axis infrared (IR) thermography setup used for in situ thermal data acquisition in L-PBF processes. The temperature adjustment was conducted by means of the so-called contact method using thermocouples at two different surface conditions and two different materials: AISI 316L L-PBF bulk surface, AISI 316L powder surface, and IN718 powder surface. The apparent emissivity values for the particular setup were determined. For the first time, also corrected, closer to real emissivity values of the bulk or powder surface condition are published. In the temperature region from approximately 150 °C to 580 °C, the corrected emissivity was determined in a range from 0.2 to 0.25 for a 316L L-PBF bulk surface, in a range from 0.37 to 0.45 for 316L powder layer, and in a range from 0.37 to 0.4 for IN718 powder layer.
The paper describes a systematic investigation of the EM influenced laser beam welding of the aluminum die casting alloy AlSi12(Fe) in comparison to a reference material, a wrought aluminum alloy AlMg3. By using of a face centred CCD test plan, the influencing variables laser power, welding velocity and magnetic flux density are varied with regard to their influence on the remaining porosity. The global pore fraction of the weld seams was analyzed by X-ray images with ImageJ. This enabled a qualitatively very good regression model to be derived for the respective material, which identifies the dominant influencing variables. The results prove, statistically verified, for the investigated parameter range, that
- the magnetic flux density is the main cause for the porosity reduction,
- the porosity rises with increasing laser power the porosity in the weld seams rises,
- the influence of the welding velocity is negligible,
- the pore quantity in wrought alloy is more strongly minimized by the magnetic flux density than in die casting,
- the porosity decreases due to the EM influence by approx. 70 % compared to the unaffected welds. This effect is emphasized by the contour line charts, which illustrate the relationship between laser power and magnetic flux density.
With the exception of the quadratic influence of B at the wrought alloy, the statistical correlation shows a linear development of the respective influence variables for both aluminum alloys. In order to investigate these deviations, further simulations with a focus on weld pool geometry and weld pool flow are to be performed. In addition, the welding results can be classified in accordance with DIN EN ISO 13919-2 in the highest evaluation group B for AlMg3 and in evaluation group C for AlSi12(Fe) by applying a magnetic flux density of 350 mT. The analysis of the CT images at constant laser power and welding velocity allows a direct comparison both between the two alloys and also as a function of the magnetic flux density with regard to the number and size of pores. An increase in the magnetic flux density leads to a significant decrease in the number and volume of pores, which can be seen more clearly in wrought alloy than in die casting. Very acceptable results can be achieved for both materials and different welding parameters. This successfully demonstrates the desired process robustness and functionality of the EM system for practical applications. For subsequent investigations of overlap joints, the lowest possible laser power and a high magnetic flux density are recommended.
Localized laser surface treatments are able to produce tailor-made surface properties to fulfill requirements of a variety of technical applications. Especially micrometric surface topologies can be beneficial for optimizing tribological contact situations. Structures with lowered surface features are already utilized for bearings or cylinders of combustion engines. There are also other fields of application, where the potential of protruding surface features is known, e. g. for metal forming tools.
A promising approach for a tailored surface treatment working in the microsecond range is the localized dispersing of hard ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation, the so-called laser implantation. This technique is able to produce micrometric surface structures and to improve simultaneously the wear resistance by creating metal matrix composites.
In this talk, the laser implantation technique is described and compared to the state of the art. The potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of laser implanted surfaces is demonstrated by means of microstructural and topographical investigations of different ceramic materials and steel substrates. Finally, results of research projects are presented aiming on the application of such structured surfaces. Their capability to change and optimize friction and wear are demonstrated for fully lubricated contacts, tools for hot sheet metal forming and tools for cold rolling of sheets for automotive applications.
The laser implantation–named technique aims to address the tribological problems frequently seen on tool surfaces during hot stamping. It is based on the creation of elevated dome- or ring-shaped hard structures on the surface of tool steels by a localized dispersing of hard particles. Therefore, a combination of the two distinct approaches that are normally used in surface Technology for optimizing friction and wear, i.e., surface texturing and surface material optimization, are realized in one processing step. In experimental studies, a localized dispersing of TiB2 particles in the surface layer of the hot work tool steel X38CrMoV5-3 was considered and compared with punctual laser–remelted textures. The structures (micro-) hardness was measured at top- and cross-sections. With the aid of a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction the interaction between the hard particles and the substrate material were studied. From the results, an optimal parameter range was identified for laser implantation. To the investigation’s end, the implant geometry was measured by optical microscopy and White light microscopy. Furthermore, a mathematic model was introduced, which allows a prediction of the implant geometry as a response to the laser parameters. It was shown that the implantation of TiB2 particles leads to a significant hardness increase up to 1600 HV1 due to the dispersion of initial particles and an in situ precipitation of new titanium-rich phases. It was possible to create defect-free dome- and ring-shaped microstructures on the surfaces. It was also shown that the implants geometry highly depends on the applied laser parameters. The applied central composite design shows a good agreement with the experimental results.
Das Presshärteverfahren hat sich zur ressourceneffizienten Verarbeitung von höchstfesten Stahlwerkstoffen im Karosserieleichtbau weltweit etabliert. Die fehlerfreie Bauteilproduktion wird jedoch durch Reibungs- und Verschleißerscheinungen aufgrund hoher thermo-mechanischer Werkzeugbelastungen und fehlender Schmierstoffsysteme limitiert. Als Lösungsansatz wird eine Modifikation der Werkzeugoberfläche mittels Laserimplantation angestrebt, um folglich deren Verschleißbeständigkeit nachhaltig zu erhöhen. Das Verfahren basiert auf einem lokalen Dispergieren keramischer Hartstoffpartikel in die Werkzeugoberfläche, infolgedessen hochfeste und erhabene Strukturen im Mikrometerbereich entstehen. Aufgrund der signifikanten Reduzierung der Kontaktfläche sowie der hohen Verschleißbeständigkeit der eingesetzten TiB2-Hartstoffe wird ein verbessertes tribologisches Einsatzverhalten unter presshärtetypischen Prozessbedingungen erwartet. Zur Verifizierung dieser Annahmen wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit modifizierte Pin-on-Disk Tests durchgeführt, um das Reib- und Verschleißverhalten der laserimplantierten Werkzeugoberflächen unter Presshärtebedingungen zu untersuchen. Zur weiteren Vertiefung des Prozess-verständnisses wurden die verschlissenen Platinen via Tastschnittmessungen und Querschliffaufnahmen analysiert. Durch den Ergebnisvergleich mit konventionellen Werkzeugoberflächen erfolgte eine abschließende Bewertung des tribologischen Einsatzverhaltens der laserimplantierten Strukturen.
Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is the most prominent additive manufacturing (AM) technology for metal part production. Among the high number of factors influencing part quality and mechanical properties, the inter layer time (ILT) between iterative melting of volume elements in subsequent layers is almost completely unappreciated in the relevant literature on L-PBF. This study investigates the effect of ILT with respect to build height and under distinct levels of volumetric energy density (VED) using the example of 316L stainless steel. In-situ thermography is used to gather information on cooling conditions during the process, which is followed by an extensive metallographic analysis. Significant effects of ILT and build height on heat accumulation, sub-grain sizes, melt pool geometries and hardness are presented. Furthermore, the rise of defect densities can be attributed to a mutual interplay of build height and ILT. Hence, ILT has been identified as a crucial factor for L-PBF of real part components especially for those with small cross sections.
AlSi10Mg is one of the most applied alloys for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology, due to its great possibilities for implementing new lightweight concepts such as in automotive industries. For the component design it is necessary to know about the mechanical properties and the mechanical behaviour. The many published strength properties of LPBF processed AlSi10Mg show significant differences up to approximately 225 MPa in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and 195 MPa in yield strength (YS). To understand these varying properties, a ring trial was carried out manufacturing specimens on 6 LPBF machines with different parameters and build-up strategies. They were studied in the as-built (AB) condition and after heat treatment at 300 °C for 30 min, respectively. For examining the mechanical properties, tensile tests and hardness measurements were carried out. The microstructure was characterized by optical light microscopy (OM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The identified differences in strength properties were discussed based on the 4 strengthening mechanism known for metallic materials and at the background of material defects. It was found that the size of the typical sub-cell structure of LPBF AlSi10Mg affected substantially the mechanical properties in the AB condition, in which with decreasing sub-cell size strength increased. If heat treatment was applied, the strength properties decreased and did not differ anymore. Since annealing led to coarsened sub-cells, whereas the grains itself did not change in size, the influence of sub-cell structure on strength was further confirmed. In addition, acicular precipitates in the AB condition were observed at specimens from one LPBF machine showing the lowest tensile elongation.
Among additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is one of the most important technologies to produce metallic components. The layer-wise build-up of components and the complex process conditions increase the probability of the occurrence of defects. However, due to the iterative nature of its manufacturing process and in contrast to conventional manufacturing technologies such as casting, L-PBF offers unique opportunities for in-situ monitoring. In this study, two cameras were successfully tested simultaneously as a machine manufacturer independent process monitoring setup: a high-frequency infrared camera and a camera for long time exposure, working in the visible and infrared spectrum and equipped with a near infrared filter. An AISI 316L stainless steel specimen with integrated artificial defects has been monitored during the build. The acquired camera data was compared to data obtained by computed tomography. A promising and easy to use examination method for data analysis was developed and correlations between measured signals and defects were identified. Moreover, sources of possible data misinterpretation were specified. Lastly, attempts for automatic data analysis by data Integration are presented.
This article is an outcome of a workshop on Fatigue of Additive Manufactured Metallic Components jointly organized by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) Berlin, Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Boulder, CO, U.S.A. The aim of the workshop was a comprehensive discussion of the specific aspects of additively manufactured (AM) components in regard to failure under cyclic loading. Undoubtedly, a better understanding and the further development of approaches for damage tolerant component design of AM parts are among the most significant challenges currently facing the use of these new technologies.
This article presents a thorough overview of the workshop discussions. It aims to provide a review of the parameters affecting the damage tolerance of AM parts with special emphasis on the process parameters intrinsic to the AM technologies, the resulting defects and residual stresses. Based on these aspects, concepts for damage tolerant component design for AM are reviewed and critically discussed.
Thermography is one on the most promising techniques for in-situ monitoring of metal additive manufacturing processes. Especially in laser powder bed fusion processes, the high process dynamics and the strong focus of the laser beam cause a very complex thermal history within the produced specimens, such as multiple heating cycles within single layer expositions. This complicates data interpretation, e.g., in terms of cooling rates. A quantity that is easily calculated is the time a specific area of the specimen is at a temperature above a chosen threshold value (TOT). Here, we discuss variations occurring in time-over-threshold-maps during manufacturing of an almost defect free cuboid specimen.
Unterschiedliche Werkstoffeigenschaften reagieren auf jeweils spezifische Weise auf Gittertyp, Gefüge und Defekte. Für die schadenstolerante Betrachtung von Werkstoff und Bauteil ist das Verständnis dieser Zusammenhänge essentiell. Der Beitrag gibt mit Hinblick auf additiv gefertigte metallische Bauteile mittels Selective Laser Melting einen kurzen, keineswegs vollständigen Überblick über Faktoren, die die Steifigkeit, Festigkeit, Duktilität, Zähigkeit, Ermüdungsrissausbreitung und Schwingfestigkeit beeinflussen. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie die bruchmechanische Betrachtung zur Quantifizierung der Zusammenhänge beitragen kann.
The laser implantation technique bases on a localized dispersing of ceramic particles in metallic surface layers for changing their micro geometry as well as their material properties. Using TiB2 and NbC hard particles, tailored microtextures consisting of elevated dome-, ring-, or line-shaped Features can be manufactured. Especially TiB2 implants feature high hardness values up to 1800 HV1 and ceramic particle contents up to 55 %, indicating superior wear resistant properties.
In einer Vielzahl technischer Anwendungen spielt die Aufrechterhaltung eines definierten Reibungs- und Verschleißverhaltens zwischen bewegten Oberflächen für die Sicherheit und Funktionalität eine entscheidende Rolle. Die Oberflächentechnik versucht durch geeignete Verfahren die Randschichten zu ertüchtigen, um Reibung und Verschleiß zu kontrollieren. Eine Verbesserung der Materialeigenschaften kann durch flächige Beschichtungen erreicht werden. Zusätzlich ermöglichen Oberflächenstrukturierungen breite Möglichkeiten zur Beeinflussung des Schmierungszustandes bzw. der Kontaktbedingungen. Neben Negativstrukturen bieten ebenfalls erhabene Mikrostrukturen großes Potenzial zur Beeinflussung des tribologischen Verhaltens. Ihr Einsatz ist aber aufgrund der besonderen Verschleißproblematik erhabener Strukturen momentan limitiert, so dass in der Regel zusätzliche verschleißreduzierende Beschichtungen notwendig werden.
In diesem Beitrag wurde das Verfahren der Laserimplantation angewandt, mit dem erhabene und separierte Oberflächenstrukturen hoher Verschleißfestigkeit in einem Fertigungsschritt erzeugbar sind. Das Verfahren basiert auf einem lokalisierten Dispergieren von Hartstoffpartikeln. Hierfür wurde erstmalig ein gepulster Faserlaser mit hoher Strahlqualität zur Erzeugung punkt- und linienförmiger Mikrostrukturen angewandt. Versuche wurden auf dem Kaltarbeitsstahl X153CrMoV12 unter Anwendung von Titandiborid als Hartstoff durchgeführt. Anhand von Härtemessungen konnte gezeigt werden, dass sowohl punkt- als auch linienförmige Strukturen mit Härten über 1000 HV1 und einer feinkörnigen Mikrostruktur mit feinverteilten Hartstoffpartikeln herstellbar sind. Des Weiteren war es möglich, die Implantgeometrien, welche an Querschliffen und durch Weißlichtinterferometeraufnahmen erfasst wurden, durch die Pulsleistung und Pulsdauer zu steuern.
The present paper investigates the electromagnetic porosity reduction in partial penetration laser beam welding of 6 mm aluminum die casting AlSi9MnMg. Applying an electromagnetic field, a significant reduction of the porosity as well as smoothing of the surface of aluminum die casting can be observed. Starting from the reference case without an electromagnetic support, the porosity was reduced by 76 %. Especially big pores can be removed from the weld pool effectively due to their beneficial volume-to-area ratio whereas very small metallurgical pores tend to remain within the weld pool even when higher magnetic flux densities are applied.
The paper describes an experimental investigation of the electromagnetic porosity reduction in partial penetration laser beam welding of 6 mm thick aluminum die casting AlSi9MnMg. The Investigation reveals that the usage of an electromagnetic field leads to a significant reduction of the porosity as well as to a surface smoothing of aluminum die casting. Based on the reference case without an electromagnetic influence, the porosity area was reduced gradually up to 76%.
Metallurgical pores as well as process pores were removed from the weld pool. Also the weld reinforcement was improved up to 78%. Best results were reached with a frequency of 4325 Hz and a magnetic flux density of 348 mT. Although a complete prevention of porosity was not achieved, the best weld seam reached a high quality and can be ranked in valuation group B of DIN EN ISO 13919-2:2001–12.
Die experimentellen Untersuchungen innerhalb dieses Berichtes zeigen die erfolgreiche Anwendung einer elektromagnetischen Schmelzbadstütze beim Laser-strahl(hybrid)schweißen von ferromagnetischen Stäh-len mit einer Werkstückdicke von bis zu 20 mm. Bis-lang wurde dieses System zur Kompensation des hydrostatischen Druckes von Aluminiumlegierungen und austenitischen Stählen eingesetzt. Zunächst wur-den die Versuche an Duplexstählen vorgenommen, die jeweils zur Hälfte aus Austenit und Ferrit bestehen. Im Anschluss daran wurden die Versuche auf bis zu 20 mm dicke Werkstücke aus Baustahl erweitert. In-nerhalb der Versuchsreihen wurden die AC-Leistung sowie die Oszillationsfrequenz variiert. Für Werk-stückdicken von 15 mm war eine AC-Leistung von ca. 1 kW notwendig, um die Wurzelüberhöhung in die Bewertungsgruppe B der für laserstrahlgeschweißten Stähle gültigen DIN EN ISO 13919-1:1996-09 einord-nen zu können. Mit zunehmender AC-Leistung wird die Wurzelüberhöhung sukzessive reduziert. Nach erfolg-reicher Erweiterung auf ferromagnetische Werkstoffe wurde die Anwendung der Technologie für das Laser-strahlhybridschweißen demonstriert, indem praxisrele-vante Y-Nähte an 20 mm dicken Baustählen ohne Wurzelüberhöhung einlagig in Wannenlage geschweißt wurden. Trotz der Beeinflussung des Lichtbogens durch das oszillierende Magnetfeld sowie des zusätz-lich zum hydrostatischen Druck zu berücksichtigenden Lichtbogendruckes wurde eine ideale Kompensation auf der Wurzelseite erzielt.
Die Erweiterung des Anwendungsspektrums der elekt-romagnetischen Schmelzbadstütze auf ferromagneti-sche Werkstoffe sowie auf das Laserstrahlhybrid-schweißen eröffnet für zukünftige industrielle Anwen-dungen ein großes Potenzial. Das einlagige Schwei-ßen dickwandiger Bauteile mittels Hochleistungslasern wird in Kombination mit der elektromagnetischen Schmelzbadstütze attraktiver. In nachfolgenden Un-tersuchungen wird der Einsatz der elektromagneti-schen Schmelzbadstütze beim Laserstrahlhybrid-schweißen von Pipelinestählen angestrebt, v. a. im Hinblick auf die Spaltüberbrückbarkeit und der me-chanisch-technologischen Eigenschaften der Schweißverbindungen. Zudem ist beim Schweißen von Duplexstählen der Einsatz von Zusatzwerkstoffen zu berücksichtigen, um das Gleichgewicht zwischen austenitischer und ferritischer Phasen zu stabilisieren.
In this paper, titanium-di-boride is dispersed on a cold-working tool steel by use of a pulsed fiber laser with high beam quality to produce separated and elevated surface features. The potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of the produced structures in dependence on the process parameters (pulse power, pulse duration) is described by means of metallographic and topographical investigations. It can be ascertained that very hard (hardness > 1000 HV1) surface features of different shape (spots and short lines) can be produced. They are characterized by a fine-grained microstructure resulting from a rapid solidification and finely dispersed TiB2 particles. Finally, the paper proposes different applications for this structuring technique.
In this paper, titanium-di-boride is dispersed on a cold-working tool steel by use of a pulsed fiber laser with high beam quality to produce separated and elevated surface features. The potential to adjust the geometry as well as the mechanical properties of the produced structures in dependence on the process parameters (pulse power, pulse duration) is described by means of metallographic and topographical investigations. It can be ascertained that very hard (hardness > 1000 HV1) surface features of different shape (spots and short lines) can be produced. They are characterized by a fine-grained microstructure resulting from a rapid solidification and finely dispersed TiB2 particles. Finally, the paper proposes different applications for this structuring technique.
Laser metal deposition (LMD) has been applied as coating technology for many years. Today, the technologies capacity to produce 3D depositions leads to a new field of application as additive manufacturing method. In this paper, 3D laser metal deposition of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is studied with special regard to the demands of additive manufacturing. Therefore, only the powder nozzle is used to create the shielding gas atmosphere, which ensures high geometric flexibility. Furthermore, specimen with high aspect ratio and hundreds of layers are manufactured, which represent typical features in additive manufacturing.
Laser metal deposition (LMD) has been applied as coating technology for many years. Today, the technologies capacity to produce 3D depositions leads to a new field of application as additive manufacturing method. In this paper, 3D laser metal deposition of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V is studied with special regard to the demands of additive manufacturing. Therefore, only the powder nozzle is used to create the shielding gas atmosphere, which ensures high geometric flexibility. Furthermore, specimen with high aspect ratio and hundreds of layers are manufactured, which represent typical features in additive manufacturing.
A transient simulation including the impact of the laser energy, the melting of the metal and the development of the weld pool was conducted to observe the evolution of the vapor capillary and the solidification of the melt in pulsed laser beam welding of AISI 304 steel. The phase field method was implemented to investigate the evolution and behavior of the liquid-gas interface during welding and to describe the condensed and vapor phases. The effects of phase transition, recoil pressure, thermo-capillary and natural convection, vaporization and temperature dependent material properties were taken into account. A Gaussian-like heat source under consideration of the Fresnel absorption model was used to model the energy input of the laser beam. The heat source model was extended by a newly developed empirical approach of describing multiple beam reflections in the keyhole. To validate this new model, the numerical results were compared to experimental data and good agreement regarding the size and shape of the weld pool was observed.
More than 80 representatives of SMEs, industrial companies and research institutes met on September 12 at the workshop "Challenges in Additive Manufacturing: Innovative Materials and Quality Control" at BAM in Adlershof to discuss the latest developments in materials and quality control in additive manufacturing.
In special lectures, researchers, users and equipment manufacturers reported on the latest and future developments in additive manufacturing. Furthermore, funding opportunities for projects between SMEs and research institutions on a national and European level were presented.
AISI D2 is one of the most applied cold-working tool steel for deep drawing operations, due to the materials good toughness and high wear resistance. However, since the lubricant-free deep drawing as well as the processing of high strength and ultra-high strength steel sheets remaining ongoing trends in the automotive industry, the tool surfaces need to be improved regarding their friction and wear behavior. For this purpose elevated micro textures can be applied. Since protruded micro features are predominantly affected by wear, a structuring process enabling the formation of suitable textures with high wear resistance is needed.
In this paper surface texturing at microscale was conducted by laser implantation. This technique allows the fabrication of highly wear resistant, separated and elevated features (implants) on steel surfaces via a discontinuous dispersing of ceramic particles by pulsed laser radiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the techniques potential for the creation of wear resistant elevated micro features on AISI D2 tool steel surfaces by the application of TiB2 particles. The laser parameters (pulse power and length) were varied and a comparative material analysis on AISI D2 laser remelted spots and TiB2 localized dispersed zones was examined. High-speed camera recordings allowed the description of the particle insertion mechanism from pre-coatings during laser processing. Mechanical properties were analyzed by (micro-) hardness measurements at top and cross sections. The microstructure was investigated by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive Xray
spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The implants geometrical properties (diameter, height, depth) were investigated by white light interferometry and optical microscopy. The experiments reveal that a pulsed laser remelting of AISI D2 leads to a significant hardness drop due to high retained austenite (γR) contents. Contrary, a localized dispersing of TiB2 particles leads to defect free dome- or ring-shaped elevated features with hardness values up to 1800 HV1. The high hardness values result from the dispersed TiB2 particles and an in-situ precipitation of new hard particle phases, which lead to a reduction of the γR content within the matrix.
Elektromagnetische Porenreduktion beim Laserstrahlschweißen von Aluminium-Druckgusslegierungen
(2019)
Innerhalb der vorliegenden Untersuchung wurde ein elektromagnetisches Schmelzbadbeeinflussungssys-tem zur Reduktion des Porenanteils beim Laserstrahlschweißen von Aluminium-Druckguss verwendet. Hierbei wird der Unterschied der elektrischen Leitfähigkeiten zwischen Gas- bzw. Lufteinschlüssen und geschmolzenem Aluminium gezielt genutzt, um die im Schmelzbad eingeschlossenen Poren während des Laserstrahlprozesses zur Oberfläche zu verdrängen. Die dafür erforderlichen Lorentzkräfte werden durch ein oszillierendes Magnetfeld erzeugt. Bei den Laserstrahlschweißversuchen handelt es sich um Ein-schweißungen in Wannenlage (PA-Position) von 6 mm dickem Aluminium-Druckguss AC-AlSi9MnMg. Über einen zuvor optimierten Laserschweißprozess wurde durch zusätzlichen Einsatz eines elektromag-netischen Feldes dessen Wirkung hinsichtlich des Porengehaltes und der Oberflächenrauheit untersucht. Die Auswertung der Schweißnähte erfolgte anhand von Querschliffaufnahmen, Röntgenbildern sowie Computer-Tomographie (CT) Aufnahmen. In Abhängigkeit von der verwendeten magnetischen Fluss-dichte konnte eine Reduktion des Porenanteils von bis zu 75 % erzielt werden, wobei vor allem großvolu-mige Poren erfolgreich aus dem Schmelzbad entfernt werden konnten. Zudem konnte eine Reduktion der Oberflächenrauigkeit von ebenfalls bis zu 75 % erreicht werden.
In einer Vielzahl technischer Anwendungen spielt die Aufrechterhaltung eines definierten Reibungs- und Verschleißverhaltens zwischen bewegten Oberflächen für die Sicherheit und Funktionalität eine ent-scheidende Rolle. Die Oberflächentechnik versucht durch geeignete Verfahren die Randschichten zu ertüchtigen, um Reibung und Verschleiß zu kontrollieren. Eine Verbesserung der Materialeigenschaften kann durch flächige Beschichtungen erreicht werden. Zusätzlich ermöglichen Oberflächenstrukturierun-gen breite Möglichkeiten zur Beeinflussung des Schmierungszustandes bzw. der Kontaktbedingungen. Neben Negativstrukturen bieten ebenfalls erhabene Mikrostrukturen großes Potenzial zur Beeinflussung des tribologischen Verhaltens. Ihr Einsatz ist aber aufgrund der besonderen Verschleißproblematik er-habener Strukturen momentan limitiert, so dass in der Regel zusätzliche verschleißreduzierende Be-schichtungen notwendig werden.
In diesem Beitrag wurde das Verfahren der Laserimplantation angewandt, mit dem erhabene und sepa-rierte Oberflächenstrukturen hoher Verschleißfestigkeit in einem Fertigungsschritt erzeugbar sind. Das Verfahren basiert auf einem lokalisierten Dispergieren von Hartstoffpartikeln. Hierfür wurde erstmalig ein gepulster Faserlaser mit hoher Strahlqualität zur Erzeugung punkt- und linienförmiger Mikrostrukturen angewandt. Versuche wurden auf dem Kaltarbeitsstahl X153CrMoV12 unter Anwendung von Titandibo-rid als Hartstoff durchgeführt. Anhand von Härtemessungen konnte gezeigt werden, dass sowohl punkt- als auch linienförmige Strukturen mit Härten über 1000 HV1 und einer feinkörnigen Mikrostruktur mit feinverteilten Hartstoffpartikeln herstellbar sind. Des Weiteren war es möglich, die Implantgeometrien, welche an Querschliffen und durch Weißlichtinterferometeraufnahmen erfasst wurden, durch die Puls-leistung und Pulsdauer zu steuern.
State-of-the-art laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) machines allow pre-heating of the substrate plate to reduce stress and improve part quality. However, two major issues have been shown in the past: First, with increasing build height the apparent pre-heat temperature at the surface can deviate drastically from the nominal pre-heat temperature in the substrate plate. Second, even within a single layer the local surface pre-heat temperature can show large gradients due to thermal bottlenecks in the part geometry underneath the top surface. Both lead to unwanted changes in microstructure or defects in the final parts. In this study, a first attempt is taken to show the feasibility of pre-heating the top surface with the onboard laser beam to overcome the mentioned issues. A single layer of a group of three parts built from IN718 to a height of 33.5 mm is pre-heated in a commercially available PBF-LB/M machine to an average steady state surface temperature of 200 °C using the onboard laser beam. The parts are continuously heated, omitting powder deposition and melting step. Temperatures are measured by thermocouples underneath the surface. The experiments are supported by a thermal finite element (FE) model that predicts the temperature field in the parts. When heating the parts uniformly with the laser beam, differences in surface temperatures as large as 170 K are observed. To overcome this inhomogeneity, the heat flux supplied by the laser beam is modulated. An optimized, spatial heat flow distribution is provided by the thermal FE model and translated into a scan pattern that reproduces the optimized heat distribution on the PBF-LB/M machine by locally modulating hatch distance and scan velocity. This successfully reduces the differences in surface temperature to 20 K. Thermographic imaging shows that a homogeneous surface temperature can be achieved despite the localized heat input by the beam. The potential for industrial application of the optimized laser-heating technique is discussed.
Additive manufacturing (AM) in general and laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) in particular are becoming increasingly important in the field of production technologies. Especially the high achievable accuracies and the great freedom in design make PBF-LB/M interesting for the manufacturing and repair of gas turbine blades. Part repair involves building AM-geometries onto an existing component. To minimise the offset between component and AM-geometry, a precise knowledge of the position of the component in the PBF-LB/M machine is mandatory. However, components cannot be inserted into the PBF-LB/M machine with repeatable accuracy, so the actual position will differ for each part. For an offset-free build-up, the actual position of the component in the PBF-LB/M machine has to be determined. In this paper, a camera-based position detection system is developed considering PBF-LB/M constraints and system requirements. This includes finding an optimal camera position considering the spatial limitations of the PBF-LB/M machine and analysing the resulting process coordinate systems. In addition, a workflow is developed to align different coordinate systems and simultaneously correct the perspective distortion in the acquired camera images. Thus, position characteristics can be determined from images by image moments. For this purpose, different image segmentation algorithms are compared. The precision of the system developed is evaluated in tests with 2D objects. A precision of up to 30μm in translational direction and an angular precision of 0.021∘ is achieved. Finally, a 3D demonstrator was built using this proposed hybrid strategy. The offset between base component and AM-geometry is determined by 3D scanning and is 69μm.
Rapidly advancing technologies and progressive digitisation are posing challenges to the established quality infrastructure (QI). In response, the key stakeholders of the German QI established the initiative QI-Digital aimed at developing new solutions for modern quality assurance. One of the central use cases herein is quality assurance for additive manufacturing, in which a fully interlinked additive manufacturing process chain is established. The intention is to collect and process data from each production step, allowing for a comprehensive digital view of the physical material flow. Within this process chain, prototypes of digital QI tools like machine readable standards and digital quality certificates are being demonstrated, tested, and evolved. This is complemented by research on the process level, comprising the evaluation and refinement of methods for in-situ and ex-situ quality assurance, as well as algorithms for registration, reduction, and analysis of process data. This paper presents the status, goals, and vision for the QI-Digital use case additive manufacturing.
The capability to produce complexly and individually shaped metallic parts is one of the main advantages of the laser powder bed fusion (PBF LB/M) process. Development of material and machine specific process parameters is commonly based on results acquired from small cubic test coupons of about 10 mm edge length. Such cubes are usually used to conduct an optimization of process parameters to produce dense material. The parameters are then taken as the basis for the manufacturing of real part geometries. However, complex geometries go along with complex thermal histories during the manufacturing process, which can significantly differ from thermal conditions prevalent during the production of simply shaped test coupons. This may lead to unexpected and unpredicted local inhomogeneities of the microstructure and defect distribution in the final part and it is a root cause of reservations against the use of additive manufacturing for the production of safety relevant parts. In this study, the influence of changing thermal conditions on the resulting melt pool depth of 316L stainless steel specimens is demonstrated. A variation of thermo-graphically measured intrinsic preheating temperatures was triggered by an alteration of inter layer times and a variation of cross section areas of specimens for three distinct sets of process parameters. Correlations between the preheating temperature, the melt pool depth, and occurring defects were analyzed. The limited expressiveness of the results of small density cubes is revealed throughout the systematic investigation. Finally, a clear recommendation to consider thermal conditions in future process parameter optimizations is given.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) are rapidly gaining popularity in repair applications. Gas turbine components benefit from the hybrid repair process as only damaged areas are removed using conventional machining and rebuilt using an AM process. However, hybrid repair is associated with several challenges such as component fixation and precise geometry detection. This article introduces a novel fixturing system, including a sealing concept to prevent powder sag during the repair process. Furthermore, a high-resolution camera within an industrial PBF-LB/M machine is installed and used for object detection and laser recognition. Herein, process related inaccuracies such as PBF-LB/M laser drift is considered by detection of reference objects. This development is demonstrated by the repair of a representative gas turbine blade. The final offset between AM build-up and component is analysed. An approximate accuracy of 160 μm is achieved with the current setup.
For the wide acceptance of the use of additive manufacturing (AM), it is required to provide reliable testing methods to ensure the safety of the additively manufactured parts. A possible solution could be the deployment of in-situ monitoring during the build process. However, for laser powder bed fusion using metal powders (PBF-LB/M) only a few in-situ monitoring techniques are commercially available (optical tomography, melt pool monitoring), which have not been researched to an extent that allows to guarantee the adherence to strict quality and safety standards.
In this contribution, we present results of a study of PBF-LB/M printed parts made of the nickel-based superalloy Haynes 282. The formation of defects was provoked by local variations of the process parameters and monitored by thermography, optical tomography and melt pool monitoring. Afterwards, the defects were characterized by computed tomography (CT) to identify the detection limits of the used in-situ techniques.
The industrialization of AM is only possible by creating synergy with the tools of Industry 4.0. The system technology of Powder Bed Fusion with Laser beam of Metals (PBF-LB/M) reached a level of high performance in terms of process stability and material spectrum in the past years. However, the digital process chain, starting from CAD via CAM and plant-specific compila-tion of the manufacturing file exhibits media disruptions. The consequence is a loss of metadata. A uniform data scheme of simulation for Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), the PBF-LB/M process itself and quality assurance is currently not realized within industry. There is no entity in the common data flows of the process chains, that enables the integration of these functionalities. As part of the creation of a digital quality infrastructure in the QI-Digital pro-ject, an integration of the CAD/CAM chain is being established. The outcome is a file in an advanced commercially available format which includes all simula-tions and manufacturing instructions. The information depth of this file extends to the level of the scan vectors and allows the automatic optimization and holis-tic documentation. In addition, the KPI for the economic analysis are generated by compressing information into a unique file combined with the application of a digital twin. The implementation and advantages of this solution are demon-strated in a case study on a multi-laser PBF-LB/M system. A build job contain-ing a challenging geometry is thermally simulated, optimized, and manufac-tured. To verify its suitability for an Additive Manufacturing Service Platform (AMSP), the identical production file is transferred to a PBF-LB/M system of another manufacturer. Finally, the achieved quality level of the build job is evaluated via 3D scanning. This evaluation is carried out in the identical entity of the production file to highlight the versatility of this format and to integrate quality assurance data.
Überblick über die derzeitig wichtigsten additiven Fertigungsverfahren für metallische Werkstoffe in der Industrie (PBF, DED, BJT) und Berücksichtigung der wesentlichen Prozessmerkmale und Nachbearbeitungsschritte. Vorstellung der wichtigsten Defektphänomene und Nennung von Ursachen und Abhilfemaßnahmen.
Laser-based Powder Bed Fusion of Metal (PBF-LB/M) is a broadly used metal additive manufacturing (AM) method for fabricating complex metallic parts, whose sizes are however limited by the build envelope of PBF-LB/M machines. Laser welding arises as a valid joining method for effectively integrating these AM parts into larger assemblies.
PBF-LB/M components must usually be stress-relieved before they can be separated from the build plate. An additional heat treatment can be beneficial for obtaining homogeneous mechanical properties across the seam or for the formation of desired precipitations in nickel-based-alloys.
Therefore, the tensile performance of laser welded hybrid (AM/wrought) and AM-AM tensile samples of Inconel 718 is examined after undergoing three different heat treatments and considering three relevant build directions. It can be shown that the build orientation is an influencing factor on weld properties even after two applied heat treatments.
Safety-critical applications of products manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) are still limited to date. This is mainly due to a lack of knowledge regarding the complex relationship between process, structure, and resulting properties. The assurance of homogeneity of the microstructure and homogeneity of the occurrence and distribution of defects within complexly shaped geometries is still challenging. Unexpected and unpredicted local inhomogeneities may cause catastrophic failures. The identification of material specific and machine specific process parameter windows for production of fully dense simple laboratory specimens is state of the art. However, the incorporation of changing thermal conditions that a complexly shaped component can be faced with during the manufacturing process is often neglected at the stage of a process window determination. This study demonstrates the tremendous effect of changing part temperatures on the defect occurrence for the broadly used stainless steel alloy AISI 316L. Process intrinsic variations of the surface temperature are caused by heat accumulation which was measured by use of a temperature adjusted mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) camera. Heat accumulation was triggered by simple yet effective temporal and geometrical restrictions of heat dissipation. This was realized by a variation of inter layer times and reduced cross section areas of the specimens. Differences in surface temperature of up to 800 K were measured. A severe development of keyhole porosity resulted from these distinct intrinsic preheating temperatures, revealing a shift of the process window towards unstable melting conditions. The presented results may serve as a warning to not solely rely on process parameter optimization without considering the actual process conditions a real component is faced with during the manufacturing process. Additionally, it motivates the development of representative test specimens.
The round robin test investigated the reliability users can expect for AlSi10Mg additive manufactured specimens by laser powder bed fusion through examining powder quality, process parameter, microstructure defects, strength and fatigue. Besides for one outlier, expected static material properties could be found. Optical microstructure inspection was beneficial to determine true porosity and porosity types to explain the occurring scatter in properties. Fractographic analyses reveal that the fatigue crack propagation starts at the rough as-built surface for all specimens. Statistical analysis of the scatter in fatigue using statistical derived safety factors concludes that at a stress of 36.87 MPa the fatigue limit of 107 cycles could be reached for all specimen with a survival probability of 99.999 %.
Undetected and undesired microstructural variations in components produced by laser powder bed fusion are a major challenge, especially for safety-critical components. In this study, an in-depth analysis of the microstructural features of 316L specimens produced by laser powder bed fusion at different levels of volumetric energy density and different levels of inter layer time is reported. The study has been conducted on specimens with an application relevant build height
(>100 mm). Furthermore, the evolution of the intrinsic preheating temperature during the build-up of specimens was monitored using a thermographic in-situ monitoring set-up. By applying recently determined emissivity values of 316L powder layers, real temperatures could be quantified. Heat accumulation led to preheating temperatures of up to about 600 °C. Significant differences in the preheating temperatures were discussed with respect to the individual process parameter combinations, including the build height. A strong effect of the inter layer time on the heat accumulation was observed. A shorter inter layer time resulted in an increase of the preheating temperature by more than a factor of 2 in the upper part of the specimens compared to longer inter layer times. This, in turn, resulted in heterogeneity of the microstructure and differences in material properties within individual specimens. The resulting differences in the microstructure were analyzed using electron back scatter diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Results from chemical analysis as well as electron back scatter diffraction measurements indicated stable conditions in terms of chemical alloy composition and austenite phase content for the used set of parameter combinations. However, an increase of the average grain size by more than a factor of 2.5 could be revealed within individual specimens. Additionally, differences in feature size of the solidification cellular substructure were examined and a trend of increasing cell sizes was observed. This trend was attributed to differences in solidification rate and thermal gradients induced by differences in scanning velocity and preheating temperature. A change of the thermal history due to intrinsic preheating could be identified as the main cause of this heterogeneity. It was induced by critical combinations of the energy input and differences in heat transfer conditions by variations of the inter layer time. The microstructural variations were directly correlated to differences in hardness.
As humanity contemplates manned missions to Mars, strategies need to be developed for the design and operation of hospitable environments to safely work in space for years. The supply of spare parts for repair and replacement of lost equipment will be one key need, but in-space manufacturing remains the only option for a timely supply. With high flexibility in design and the ability to manufacture ready-to-use components directly from a computeraided model, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies appear extremely attractive. For the manufacturing of metal parts, laser-beam melting is the most widely used AM process. However, the handling of metal powders in the absence of gravity is one prerequisite for its successful application in space. A gas flow throughout the powder bed is successfully applied to compensate for missing gravitational forces in microgravity experiments. This so-called gas-flow-assisted powder deposition is based on a porous Building platform acting as a filter for the fixation of metal particles in a gas flow driven by a pressure difference maintained by a vacuum pump.
Der Vortrag stellt die Arbeiten der BAM in der Initiative QI-Digital vor, in deren Rahmen Lösungen für eine moderne und digitale Qualitätsinfrastruktur entwickelt werden. Schwerpunkt liegt auf dem zentralen Werkzeug Quality-X sowie dem Pilotprojekt "Moderne Qualitätssicherung in der Additiven Fertigung".
Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is a promising additive manufacturing (AM) technology for metal part production especially for complex and lightweight structures or functional designs. In L PBF processes several by-products including welding plume and its condensates, spatter and ejected powder are generated during laser exposure. Investigations of micro- and nano-sized by-products have received little attention in literature. This study focuses on the analysis of particle emissions in L PBF of 316L stainless steel using a scattered light aerosol spectrometer and a fast mobility particle sizer spectrometer during the process which allows for in-situ analysis of particle sizes in the range of 6 nm to 100 µm. A distinct correlation of emission signals to part position can be revealed. In addition, a significant influence of laser scanning vector directions on emission signals is presented. Furthermore, differing powder layer thicknesses can be recognised by deviations in emission signals.
Das Prozessmonitoring stellt einen wichtigen Baustein für eine Qualitätssicherung additiv gefertigter Bauteile dar, insbesondere bei kleinen Losgrößen. Der Vortrag zeigt einen Überblick aktueller Entwicklungen der BAM im Bereich des Prozessmonitorings für das Laserstrahlschmelzen (laser powder bed fusion) metallischer Werkstoffe. Durch Vergleich mit der Referenzmethode Computertomografie wird am Beispiel der thermografischen Verfahren gezeigt, wie relevante Defekte in Bauteilen detektiert werden können und Einsatzpotenziale sowie Limitierungen aufgezeigt.