Additive Fertigung
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Laser based Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) is an additive manufacturing technique that has been continuously developed in the past years. It offers unparalleled design freedom and the resulting mechanical properties match, in some cases even exceed, those of materials processed by conventional manufacturing techniques. Nonetheless the process is prone to create Residual Stresses (RS) resulting from the sequential melting and solidification of the material. RS can reduce load bearing capacity and generate unwanted distortions thus diminishing the potential of L-PBF. This research activity aimed at characterizing the RS state in Inconel 718 L-PBF specimens using multiple diffraction methods. The microstructure as well as the surface and bulk residual stresses were investigated. The RS analysis was performed using X-ray, synchrotron and neutron diffraction methods to provide information at different depths within the specimen. The measurements were performed at the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und –prüfung (BAM), the EDDI beamline at BESSY II synchrotron and E3 line at BER II neutron reactor of the Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie (HZB) Berlin. The results revealed a depth depending RS state. The longitudinal and transverse stress components measured by X-ray and synchrotron at the surface agree well, exhibiting stress values around the yield strength of the material. In addition, synchrotron mapping showed gradients along the width and length of the sample for the longitudinal and transverse stress components. Lower RS values compared to surface RS were measured in the bulk of the material using neutron diffraction. The longitudinal stress component in the bulk was tensile and gradually decreased towards the edge of the specimen. The normal component however did not change significantly along the specimen dimensions and was of compressive nature. The transversal component was almost negligible. The results indicate that a stress re-distribution takes place during the deposition of the consecutive layers, which has to be further investigated.
During the last years Additive Manufacturing (AM) became increasingly important. That becomes clear, while looking at the advantages like a high degree of freedom concerning the geometry of the parts, low waste rates and a reduction of postprocessing, to name just three. Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is one of those AM- methods. It can be used for different kinds of applications, e.g. repair weldings of used parts, coatings to increase the corrosion resistance or to build up new components. But for all applications, the production of defect free parts is crucial. Therefore, different kinds of non-destructive monitoring techniques were tested for the LMD-process to identify their potential to detect imperfections in-situ.
Are we ready for putting a human footprint on Mars? Obviously, it is possible to send technologically challenging missions to our earth neighbors with a high level of complexity, such as enabling autonomous planetary mobility. As humanity contemplates mounting manned missions to Mars, strategies need to be developed for the design and operation of hospitable environments safely working in space for years. Humans require water and air provided by complicated equipment. Its safe operation is a great challenge and implies being prepared for all eventualities. Instead of foreseeing and preparing for all possible scenarios of machine failures and accidents, it appears logic taking advantage of the flexibility of humans and providing essential equipment for the reaction on critical situations. The supply of spare parts for repair and replacement of lost equipment would be one key pillar of such a strategy. Bearing in mind the absolute distance and flight trajectories for manned missions to Mars, supplying spare parts from Earth is impossible. Thus, in space manufacturing remains the only option for a timely supply. With a high flexibility in design and the ability to manufacture ready to use components directly from a computer aided model, additive manufacturing technologies appear extremely attractive. For metal parts manufacturing the Laser Beam Melting process is the most widely used additive manufacturing process in industrial application. However, envisioning the handling of metal powders in the absence of gravitation is one prerequisite for its successful application in space. A gas flow throughout the powder bed has been successfully applied to compensate for missing gravitational forces in micro gravity experiments. The 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.
Are we ready for putting a human footprint on Mars? Obviously, it is possible to send technologically challenging missions to our earth neighbors with a high level of complexity, such as enabling autonomous planetary mobility. As humanity contemplates mounting manned missions to Mars, strategies need to be developed for the design and operation of hospitable environments safely working in space for years. Humans require water and air provided by complicated equipment. Its safe operation is a great challenge and implies being prepared for all eventualities. Instead of foreseeing and preparing for all possible scenarios of machine failures and accidents, it appears logic taking advantage of the flexibility of humans and providing essential equipment for the reaction on critical situations. The supply of spare parts for repair and replacement of lost equipment would be one key pillar of such a strategy. Bearing in mind the absolute distance and flight trajectories for manned missions to Mars, supplying spare parts from Earth is impossible. Thus, in space manufacturing remains the only option for a timely supply. With a high flexibility in design and the ability to manufacture ready to use components directly from a computer aided model, additive manufacturing technologies appear extremely attractive. For metal parts manufacturing the Laser Beam Melting process is the most widely used additive manufacturing process in industrial application. However, envisioning the handling of metal powders in the absence of gravitation is one prerequisite for its successful application in space. A gas flow throughout the powder bed has been successfully applied to compensate for missing gravitational forces in micro gravity experiments. The 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.
Many of the most successful and precise additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are based on the deposition layer-by-layer of a flowable powder. Since the first pioneering work at the end of the 1980th many developments have been introduced, greatly extending the use of different materials, improving the physical properties of the components built and enhancing the accuracy of the process. Still very important issues remain nowadays, hampering a completely autonomous production of parts and even restricting the freedom of design by means of these technologies. One of the major issues is the low density and stability of the parts during the building process, which implies the need of support structures: The powder bed surrounding the part has an essential role, since it should support the structure during building, until it’s ready for removal. Moreover, the microstructure of the powder bed is a template for the microstructure of the part produced. In this context, the use of submicron ceramic powders is still a challenge. Three approaches for the stabilization and densification of powder beds will be presented: The Layerwise Slurry Deposition process LSD, the gas flow assisted powder deposition and the Laser Induced Slipcasting (LIS) of ceramic powder compacts.
Despite of the significant advances in AM process optimization there is still a lack of experimental results and understanding regarding the mechanical behavior and microstructural evolution of AMparts, especially in loading conditions typical for safety-relevant applications e.g. in the aerospace or power engineering. Within the scope of the presented investigations, a characterization of the fatigue behavior of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V in the low cycle fatigue regime was carried out in the range of 0.3 to 1.0 % strain amplitude at room temperature, 250°C and 400°C. The Ti-6Al-4V specimens are machined out of lean cylindrical rods, which were fabricated using powder laser metal deposition (LMD) with an improved build-up strategy. The improved strategy incorporates variable track overlap ratios to achieve a constant growth in the shell and core area. The low-cycle-fatigue behavior is described based on cyclic deformation curves and strain-based fatigue life curves. The lifetimes are fitted based on the Manson-Coffin-Basquin relationship. A characterization of the microstructure and the Lack-of-Fusion (LoF)-defect-structure in the as-built state is performed using optical light microscopy and high-resolution computed tomography (CT) respectively. The failure mechanism under loading is described in terms of LoF-defects-evolution and crack growth mechanism based on an interrupted LCF test with selected test parameters. After failure, scanning electron microscopy, digital and optical light microscopy and CT are used to describe the failure mechanisms both in the longitudinal direction and in the cross section of the specimens. The fatigue lives obtained are comparable with results from previous related studies and are shorter than those of traditionally manufactured (wrought) Ti-6Al-4V. In this study new experimental data and understanding of the mechanical behavior under application-relevant loading conditions (high temperature, cyclic plasticity) is gained. Furthermore, a better understanding of the role of LoFdefects and AM-typical microstructural features on the failure mechanism of LMD Ti-6Al-4V is achieved.
The present study deals with the experimental characterization of short crack propagation in SLM (selective-laser-melting) manufactured stainless steel. More specifically, the determination of cyclic R-curves is discussed. This describes the dependency of the crack propagation threshold on crack growth during the short crack propagation stage. For metals, the threshold, starting at a material-intrinsic value, increases until it reaches a value independent of the crack length due to crack closure phenomena which build up at that stage. The cyclic R-curve, when used in the frame of a cyclic R curve analysis, characterizes the resistance of a material to fatigue crack growth and the ability to arrest a physically short crack. Thus, it is the link between classical fatigue and fracture mechanics. In the high-cycle-fatigue range, the short crack propagation stage dominates the overall lifetime, i.e., the number of cycles until failure. Below the fatigue limit crack arrest of hitherto propagable micro-cracks will occur. The effort for the experimental characterization of the short fatigue crack propagation behavior and the cyclic R-curve is very high compared to experiments on long crack propagation. A very exact measurement of crack extension is required, since small increments need to be depicted. Pre-cracking must leave a closure free initial crack, since closure must be build up only by the cyclic R-curve. The closure-free status is achieved by compression pre-cracking. The aim of the present study is an insight into the influence of an AM process on the short crack propagation threshold. Cyclic R-curves are experimentally determined at different load-ratios for 316L austenitic steel specimens produced by SLM and conventional manufacturing. Residual stresses are measured in the crack plane and their influence on the cyclic R-curve is discussed.
The assessment of high cycle fatigue in additive manufactured (AM) components is a challenge due to complex microstructure, anisotropic material behavior, residual stresses and porosity / lack-of-fusion defects. Due to the statistical distribution of defects, a high scatter band of S-N-curves is expected. The fracture mechanics-based fatigue assessment of additive manufactured components must consider the propagation of short cracks emanating from defects.
In this work, the fatigue crack propagation resistance in the short and large crack regimes of additive and conventionally manufactured AISI 316L stainless steel is examined experimentally based on the cyclic R-curve. However, remaining residual stresses in the AM specimen lead to unexpected and dramatic crack-growth during the pre-cracking procedure.
Residual stresses count among the most limiting factors in the application of additively manufactured materials in safety relevant components subject to cyclic loading. The source of such stresses is inherent in the manufacturing Laser Beam Melted (LBM) process due to rapid cooling and solidification and their distribution in the specimen or component is not homogeneous, but it is usually characterized by high gradients. Moreover, the magnitude of the residual stress field depends very much on the orientation, being higher in the build direction.
Many works in the literature advise to carry out a post-LBM treatment to relieve residual stresses, even though particular attention should be paid in choosing the parameters for the thermal treatment in order to avoid microstructural/phase transformations, which would affect greatly the mechanical properties of the material.
Particularly in the case of the austenitic stainless steel 316L, it has been shown that annealing at high temperatures (above 900°C), besides relieving the residual stresses, may cause recrystallization, grain growth and even phase transformation. In contrast, if a too low annealing temperature is chosen in order to preserve the microstructure, the residual stresses cannot be completely relieved.
This work aims to address the effect of residual stresses on short and long crack propagation for SEN(B) specimens made of 316L fabricated by LBM, in which notches have been machined by electro-discharge machining (EDM) on the mid-plane, perpendicular to the build direction. The specimens underwent different annealing treatments in inert atmosphere, in which the maximum temperature has been varied up to 900°C. The amount of residual stresses and their distribution has been measured by X-ray and neutron diffraction and the specimens have been subject to cyclic loading in a resonant testing machine. The tests show a massive influence of the residual stresses in the build direction on the resistance to fatigue crack propagation of additively manufactured 316L. Finally, a comparison with conventionally manufactured 316L is presented.
The present study deals with the experimental characterization of short crack propagation in SLM (selective-laser-melting) manufactured stainless steel. More specifically, the determination of cyclic R-curves is discussed. This describes the dependency of the crack propagation threshold on crack growth during the short crack propagation stage. For metals, the threshold, starting at a material-intrinsic value, increases until it reaches a value independent of the crack length due to crack closure phenomena which build up at that stage. The cyclic R-curve, when used in the frame of a cyclic R curve analysis, characterizes the resistance of a material to fatigue crack growth and the ability to arrest a physically short crack. Thus, it is the link between classical fatigue and fracture mechanics. In the high-cycle-fatigue range, the short crack propagation stage dominates the overall lifetime, i.e., the number of cycles until failure. Below the fatigue limit crack arrest of hitherto propagable micro-cracks will occur. The effort for the experimental characterization of the short fatigue crack propagation behavior and the cyclic R-curve is very high compared to experiments on long crack propagation. A very exact measurement of crack extension is required, since small increments need to be depicted. Pre-cracking must leave a closure free initial crack, since closure must be build up only by the cyclic R-curve. The closure-free status is achieved by compression pre-cracking. The aim of the present study is an insight into the influence of an AM process on the short crack propagation threshold. Cyclic R-curves are experimentally determined at different load-ratios for 316L austenitic steel specimens produced by SLM and conventional manufacturing. Residual stresses are measured in the crack plane and their influence on the cyclic R-curve is discussed.
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.
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.
Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is one of the most promising additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for the production of complex metallic real part components. Due to the multitude of factors influencing process conditions and part quality and due to the layer-wise characteristic of the process, monitoring of process signatures seems to be mandatory in case of the production of safety critical components. Here, the iterative process nature enables unique access for in-situ monitoring during part manufacture. In this talk, the successful test of the synchronous use of a high-frequency infrared camera and a camera for long time exposure, working in the visible spectrum (VIS) and equipped with a near infrared filter (NIR), will be introduced as a machine manufacturer independent thermal detection monitoring set-up. Thereby, the synchronous use of an infrared camera and a VIS NIR camera combines the advantages of high framerate and high spatial resolution. The manufacture of a 316L stainless steel specimen, containing purposely seeded defects and volumes with forced changes of energy inputs, was monitored during the build. The measured thermal responses are analysed and compared with a defect mapping obtained by micro X-ray computed tomography (CT).
The first results regarding methods for data analysis, derived correlations between measured signals and detected defects as well as sources of possible data misinterpretation are presented in this talk.
Virtual-lab-based determination of a macroscopic yield function for additively manufactured parts
(2019)
This work aims for an yield function description of additively manufactured (AM) parts of S316L steel at the continuum-mechanical macro-scale by means of so-called virtual experiments using a crystal plasticity (CP) model at meso-scale. Additively manufactured parts require the consideration of the specific process-related microstructure, which prevents this material to be macroscopically treated as isotropic, because of crystallographic as well as topological textures.
EBSD/CT-Scans from in-house additively manufactured specimen extract the unique microstructural topology which is converted to a representative volume element (RVE) with grain structure and crystal orientations.
Crystal plasticity model parameters on this RVE are calibrated and validated by means of mechanical testing under different texture angles. From virtual experiments on this RVE, yield loci under various loading conditions are simulated. The scale bridging from meso- to macro-scale is realised by the identification of the simulated yield loci as a modified anisotropic Barlat-type yield model representation.
Residual stresses in Laser Beam Melting (LBM) – Critical Review and outlook of activities at BAM
(2019)
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have experienced an exceedingly rapid growth, which is coupled with the knowledge about the resulting material properties and performance. In particular, residual stress (RS) was soon recognized as an important issue in AM parts, such that parts are usually subjected to a post build-heat-treated. Significant effort has been spent on simulations of RS in AM, especially using finite element methods. As a consequence, the experimental determination of RS has thereby become increasingly important as a validation tool for simulations, as well as a method for assessing the influence of process parameters. In particular, diffraction methods, which are fundamentally non-destructive, offer enormous possibilities to gain knowledge on the residual stress state in real components, since synchrotron radiation and neutrons can penetrate even heavy metals up to several millimeters or centimeters, respectively. Indeed, significant progress has been achieved, in the understanding of the origins of the RS fields as a function of process parameters, as well as their stability under thermal and/or mechanical exposure.
In this paper, a few success stories will be outlined. It will be shown how the determination of RS in metallic parts (with the focus on those produced by laser powder bed fusion) has even revealed that process parameters that were previously considered unimportant (e.g. the position and orientation on the base plate) play a major role in the onset of residual stress accumulation.
However, while RS characterization is starting to be considered in the component design, deposition strategy (e.g. build plate temperature), and even in the definition of the relevant metric to assess the quality of a part, much is still to be investigates about the hypotheses underlying its experimental determination. Therefore, some aspects to be aware of, or even those which to date are unclear, will also be discussed. These include the determination of the stress-free reference and of the principal axes of stress. All of these aspects will lead towards a comprehensive understanding of the process-structure-performance relationships in AM materials and parts.
Rapid localized heating and cooling during additive manufacturing using laser deposition method (LMD) lead to loss of dimensional accuracy as well as cracking of built parts. Finite-Element welding simulations allow prediction of geometrical deviations and accumulated residual stresses as well as their optimization before conducting experiments. Due to the great length of stacked welds, calculation times for fully transient thermomechanical simulations are currently long, the calculation stability suffers from the high number of contact bodies in the model and the modelling effort is high, as the geometries need to be sliced and positioned layer-wise.
In this contribution, an integrated modelling approach is demonstrated for a thin-walled LMD component made from 30 layers of 1.4404 (316L) stainless steel: Instead of the layer-by-layer modelling strategy commonly found in the literature, the whole component mesh is kept in one piece and the fully transient, layer-by-layer material deposition is implemented via element sets. In contrast to prior simulations, nonlinear contact between the layers does not have to be considered, significantly decreasing calculation times. The calculated distortions are compared to recently published, in-situ digital image correlation (DIC) measurements as well as numerical simulations conducted with the established layer-wise modelling strategy to judge result quality. Finally, the improvement in calculation time and ease-of-use is compared between both modelling approaches and conclusions regarding future usage for industrial-scale components are drawn.
Powder bed -based technologies are amongst the most successful Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. "Selective laser sintering/melting" (SLS/SLM) and "binder jetting 3D printing" (3DP) especially are leading AM technologies for metals and polymers, thanks to their high productivity and scalability.
However, the flowability of the powder used in these processes is essential to achieve defect-free and densely packed powder layers. For standard powder bed AM technologies, this limits the use of many raw materials which are too fine or too cohesive.
This presentation will discuss the possibilities to either optimize the powder raw material to adapt it to the specific AM process, or to develop novel AM technologies which are able to process powders in a wider range of conditions.
In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method which enables the use of very fine ceramic particles.
The layerwise slurry deposition (LSD) has been established in the recent years as a method for the deposition of ceramic powder layers. The LSD consists in the layer-by-layer deposition of a ceramic slurry by means of a doctor blade; each layer is sequentially deposited and dried to achieve a highly packed powder layer.
The combination of binder jetting and LSD was introduced as a novel technology named LSD-print. The LSD-print takes advantage of the speed of binder jetting to print large areas, parallel to the flexibility of the LSD, which allows the deposition of highly packed powder layers with a variety of ceramic materials.
The working principle and history of the LSD technology will be shortly discussed. A theoretical background will be also discussed, highlighting advantages and drawbacks of the LSD compared to the deposition of a dry powder.
The last part of the talk will be dedicated to highlight recent results on the LSD-print of SiSiC of geometrically complex components, in collaboration between BAM and HC Starck Ceramics GmbH. Density, microstructure and mechanical properties of LSD-printed and isostatic pressed samples will be discussed and compared.
Using non-optimum combination of manufacturing parameters in selective laser melting (SLM) may lead to reduction of quality of component: defects generation, distortion of geometry and even cracking. Usually, the optimization of parameters is performed by changing volumetric energy density (Ev) and selecting parameters giving low porosity values. However, not only low porosity but also stable microstructure and low residual stresses will help to achieve advanced mechanical behavior of the component.
In present work, we investigated cuboid-shaped Ti-6Al-4V samples produced with different manufacturing parameters. The parameters leading to the same Ev were considered as well as parameters which are not included in Ev. Residual stresses in subsurface region were investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, which allows to penetrate around 100 µm from the surface therefore overcome the problem of high roughness of SLM components without additional sample preparation. Only tensile stresses were found along the building direction, that can play critical role especially during cyclic loading. The pore shape and spatial distribution obtained by computed tomography varied for samples produced with the same Ev. However, by using some process parameters it was possible to decrease residual stresses and obtain uniform α+β Ti microstructure and relatively low porosity. Additionally, it was found that not included in Ev (e.g., base plate position, focus distance) should be considered as additional manufacturing parameters during SLM process.
Additive manufacturing of alkali-activated materials currently attracts a lot of attention, because of the possibility to produce customized high-performance elements for a range of applications, potentially being more resource-efficient than conventionally produced parts. Here, we describe a new additive manufacturing process for alkali-activated materials that is based on selective laser-heating of lithium aluminate/microsilica slurries. The new process-material combination allows to manufacture elements with complex geometries at high building rates and high accuracy. The process is versatile and transferrable to structures of sizes differing by orders of magnitude. The mechanical strength of the obtained materials was in the range of values reported for conventional metakaolin-based geopolymers, and superior to what has been hitherto reported for alkali-activated materials produced by additive manufacturing. This mechanical performance was obtained despite the fact that the degree of reaction of the lithium aluminate and the microsilica was low, suggesting that significant reactions took place only at the surface of the microsilica particles.
Quality Aspects of Additively Manufactured Medical Implants - Defect Detection in Lattice Parts
(2019)
Additive Manufacturing technologies are developing fast to enable a rapid and flexible production of parts. Tailoring products to individual needs is a big advantage of this technology, which makes it of special interest for the medical device industry and the direct manufacturing of final products. Due to the fast development, standards to assure reliability of the AM process and quality of the printed products are often lacking. The EU project Metrology for Additively Manufactured Medical Implants (MetAMMI) is aiming to fill this gap by investigating alternative and cost efficient non-destructive measurement methods.
3D microstructures with sub-micron resolution can be manufactured in additive manner applying multi-photon laser structuring technique. This paper is focused on the incorporation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles into the photoresist in order to manufacture micrometer-sized devices featuring a magnetic moment. The aim of the project is to achieve untethered actuation of the presented objects through externally applied magnetic fields. Future medical application scenarios such as drug delivery and tissue engineering are targeted by this research.
By allowing economic on demand manufacturing of highly customized and complex workpieces, metal based additive manufacturing (AM) has the prospect to revolutionize many industrial areas. Since AM is prone to the formation of defects during the building process, a fundamental requirement for AM to become applicable in most fields is the ability to guarantee the adherence to strict quality and safety standards. A possible solution for this problem lies in the deployment of various in-situ monitoring techniques. For most of these techniques, the application to AM is still very poorly understood. Therefore, the BAM in its mission to provide safety in technology has initiated the project “Process Monitoring of AM” (ProMoAM). In this project, a wide range of in-situ process monitoring techniques, including active and passive thermography, optical tomography, optical emission and absorption spectroscopy, eddy current testing, laminography, X-ray backscattering and photoacoustic methods, are applied to laser metal deposition (LMD), laser powder bed fusion and wire arc AM. Since it is still unclear which measured quantities are relevant for the detection of defects, these measurements are performed very thoroughly. In successive steps, the data acquired by all these methods is fused and compared to the results of reference methods such as computer tomography and ultrasonic immersion testing. The goal is to find reliable methods to detect the formation of defects during the building process. The detailed acquired data sets may also be used for comparison with simulations.
Here, we show first results of high speed (> 300 Hz) thermographic measurements of the LMD process in the SWIR range using 316L as building material. For these experiments, the camera was mounted fixed to the welding arm of the LMD machine to keep the molten pool in focus, regardless of the shape of the specimen. As the thermograms do not contain any information about the current spatial position during the building process, we use an acceleration sensor to track the movement and synchronize the measured data with the predefined welding path. This allows us to reconstruct the geometry of the workpieces and assign the thermographic data to spatial positions. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of the acquisition wavelength on the thermographic data by comparing measurements acquired with different narrow bandpass filters (50 nm FWHM) in a spectral range from 1150 nm to 1550 nm.
This research was funded by BAM within the Focus Area Materials.
As a part of ProMoAM project, we are optimizing a prototype X-ray backscatter to reach NDT requirements, and thereafter to apply it for process monitoring. Moreover, we studied the capability of a radiography approach to detect artificial defects in AM components made by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF).
Additive manufacturing is no longer just used for the production of prototypes but already found its way into the industrial production. However, the fabrication of massive metallic parts with high geometrical complexity is still too time-consuming to be economically viable. The combination of the powder bed-based selective laser melting process (SLM), known for its geometrical freedom and accuracy, and the nozzle-based laser metal deposition process (LMD), known for its high build-up rates, has great potential to reduce the process duration. For the industrial application of the SLM-LMD hybrid process chain it is necessary to investigate the interaction of the processes and its effect on the material properties to guarantee part quality and prevent component failure. Therefore, hybrid components are manufactured and examined before and after the heat treatment regarding the microstructure and the hardness in the SLM-LMD transition zone. The experiments are conducted using the nickel-based alloy Inconel 718.
For metal-based additive manufacturing, sensors and measuring systems for monitoring of the energy source, the build volume, the melt pool and the component geometry are already commercially available. Further methods of optics, spectroscopy and non-destructive testing are described in the literature as suitable for in-situ application, but there are only a few reports on practical implementations.
Therefore, a new BAM project aims to develop process monitoring methods for the in-situ evaluation of the quality of additively manufactured metal components. In addition to passive and active thermography, this includes optical tomography, optical emission and absorption spectroscopy, eddy current testing, laminography, X-ray backscattering and photoacoustic methods. These methods are used in additive manufacturing systems for selective laser melting, laser metal deposition and wire arc additive manufacturing. To handle the sometimes huge amounts of data, algorithms for efficient preprocessing are developed and characteristics of the in-situ data are extracted and correlated to defects and inhomogeneities, which are determined using reference methods such as computer tomography and metallography. This process monitoring and fusion of data of different measurement techniques should result in a significant reduction of costly and time-consuming, destructive or non-destructive tests after the production of the component and at the same time reduce the production of scrap.
Here, first results of simultaneous measurements of optical emission spectroscopy and thermography during the laser metal deposition process using 316L as building material are presented. Temperature values are extracted from spectroscopic data by fitting of blackbody emission spectra to the experimental data and compared with results from a thermographic camera. Measurements with and without powder flow reveal significant differences between welding at a pristine metal surface and previously melted positions on the build plate, illustrating the significant influence of the partial oxidation of the surface during the first welding process on subsequent welding. The measurement equipment can either be mounted stationary or following the laser path. While first results were obtained in the stationary mode, future applications for online monitoring of the build of whole parts in the mobile mode are planned.
This research was funded by BAM within the focus area Material.
This talk presents a new application for high-spatial resolution eddy current testing (ET) with magneto resistive (MR) sensor arrays. With rising popularity and availability of additive manufacturing (AM), companies mainly in the aerospace sector, set high requirements on quality control of AM parts, especially produced with selective laser melting (SLM). Since it was shown that those parts are prawn to flaws like pores or cracks, every part needs to be tested. Therefore, NDT Methods, like ET, could help to characterize SLM parts. Research on ET has shown, that offline ET with high spatial resolution MR sensor arrays is possible and that flaws as small as 50 µm could be detected while significantly reducing testing time. In this talk a first approach on automated online ET method for testing SLM parts is proposed. An approach with hundreds of MR sensor is made to maintain spatial resolution and short testing times. Classic signal conditioning methods are used to reduce cost and complexity while maintaining high testing bandwidths. The proposed idea enables further research on automated generation of testing reports, process control or automated flaw curing.
The project ProMoAM is presented. The goal of the project is to evaluate which NDT techniques or combination of techniques is suited for in-situ quality assurance in additive manufacturing of metals. To this end, also 3d-data fusion and visualization techniques are applied. Additional ex-situ NDT-techniques are used as references for defect detection and quantification. Feasability studies for NDT-techniques that are presently not applicable for in-situ use are performed as well.
The presentation gives a brief overview of the whole project and the different involved NDT-techniques.
The Influence of the Temperature Gradient on the Distribution of Residual Stresses in AM AISI 316L
(2019)
Steep temperature gradients and solidification shrinkage are the main contributors to the formation of residual stresses in additively manufactured metallic parts produced by laser beam melting. The aim of this work was to determine the influence of the temperature gradient.
Diffraction results show a similar pattern for both specimens, indicating the shrinkage to be more dominant for the distribution of residual stresses than the temperature gradient. Thermography results imply that a higher energy input result in higher compressive residual stresses in the bulk.
µCT is used to validate the capability of online monitoring for in-situ detection of defects during the L-PBF build process, which is a focus of the TF project ProMoAM.
Our first experiments show that online monitoring using thermography and optical tomography cameras are able to detect defects in the built part. But further research is needed to understand root cause of the correlation.
Despite of the significant advances in additive manufacturing (AM) process optimization there is still a lack of experimental results and understanding regarding the mechanical behavior and its relationship with the microstructural features of AM-parts, especially in loading conditions typical for safety-relevant applications. Within the scope of the presented ongoing investigations, a basic microstructural characterization, tensile tests at room and elevated temperature (400°C) as well as a characterization of the fatigue behavior of additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V in the low cycle fatigue regime are carried out in the as-built state. After failure, different techniques are used to describe the failure mechanisms of the specimens. The AM-Specimens are provided by the Fraunhofer institute for production systems and design technology and investigated at the BAM following the philosophy of the TF-Project AGIL.
Virtual-lab-based determination of a macroscopic yield function for additively manufactured parts
(2019)
This work aims for a yield function description of additively manufactured parts of S316L steel at the continuum-mechanical macro-scale by means of so-called virtual experiments using a crystal plasticity (CP) model at meso-scale. Additively manufactured parts require the consideration of the specific process-related microstructure, which prevents this material to be macroscopically treated as isotropic, because of crystallographic as well as topological textures. From virtual experiments, yield loci under various loading conditions are simulated. The scale bridging from meso- to macro-scale is realised by the identification of the simulated yield loci as a modified anisotropic Barlat-type yield model representation.
The paper deals with the integration of a light emitting diode (LED) into an additive manufactured metal component. Selective laser melting (SLM) and laser metal deposition (LMD) are used. The material used is the chrome-nickel steel 316L. The basic component is manufactured by means of SLM and consists of a solid body and an area with grid structure. The solid body includes a duct in the shape of a groove with a recess for the positioning of the power cable. The LED is embedded in the grid structure via an inlet from the solid body. In further processing, the groove is filled with LMD. Two strategies with different parameter combinations were investigated. It shows that a high energy input near the power cable leads to its destruction. By using multiple parameter combinations during the manufacturing process, this destruction can be prevented. There was a comparison of both strategies with regard to the necessary number of tracks and duration of welding time.
The paper deals with the integration of a light emitting diode (LED) into an additive manufactured metal component. Selective laser melting (SLM) and laser metal deposition (LMD) are used. The material used is the chrome-nickel steel 316L. The basic component is manufactured by means of SLM and consists of a solid body and an area with grid structure. The solid body includes a duct in the shape of a groove with a recess for the positioning of the power cable. The LED is embedded in the grid structure via an inlet from the solid body. In further processing, the groove is filled with LMD. Two strategies with different parameter combinations were investigated. It shows that a high energy input near the power cable leads to its destruction. By using multiple parameter combinations during the manufacturing process, this destruction can be prevented. There was a comparison of both strategies with regard to the necessary number of tracks and duration of welding time.
Powder bed -based technologies are amongst the most successful Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. "Selective laser sintering/melting" (SLS/SLM) and "binder jetting 3D printing" (3DP) especially are leading AM technologies for metals and polymers, thanks to their high productivity and scalability. In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method which enables the use of SLS/SLM and 3DP technologies for advanced ceramic materials. LSD consists in the layer-by-layer deposition of a ceramic slurry by means of a doctor blade. Each layer is deposited and dried to achieve a highly packed powder layer, which can be used for SLM or for 3DP. This technique offers high flexibility in the ceramic feedstock used, especially concerning material and particle size, and is capable of producing parts with physical and mechanical properties comparable to traditionally shaped parts. In this presentation, the LSD technique will be introduced and several examples of application to porcelain, SiC and alumina products will be reported.
Powder bed -based technologies are amongst the most successful Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. "Selective laser sintering/melting" (SLS/SLM) and "binder jetting 3D printing" (3DP) especially are leading AM technologies for metals and polymers, thanks to their high productivity and scalability.
However, the flowability of the powder used in these processes is essential to achieve defect-free and densely packed powder layers. For standard powder bed AM technologies, this limits the use of many raw materials which are too fine or too cohesive.
This presentation will discuss the possibilities to either optimize the powder raw material to adapt it to the specific AM process, or to develop novel AM technologies which are able to process powders in a wider range of conditions.
In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method which enables the use of very fine ceramic particles. Another technology, the Gas Flow Assisted Powder Deposition, can increase the stability of the powder bed and the packing density, even in extreme conditions such as in absence of gravitational forces.
In powder bed Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, a part is produced by depositing and piling up thin powder layers. In each layer, the cross section of the object to build is defined by locally consolidating the powder, by sintering/melting the material (powder bed fusion technologies) or by ink jetting a binder (binder jetting technologies).
These are already leading AM technologies for metals and polymers, thanks to their high productivity and scalability. The application of these techniques to most ceramics has been challenging so far, because of the challenges related to the deposition of homogeneous powder layers when using fine powders.
In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method which enables the use of SLS/SLM and 3DP technologies for advanced ceramic materials. LSD consists in the layer-by-layer deposition of a ceramic slurry by means of a doctor blade. Each layer is deposited and dried to achieve a highly packed powder layer. The LSD offers high flexibility in the ceramic feedstock used, especially concerning material and particle size, and enables the production of parts with physical and mechanical properties comparable to pressed or slip-casted parts. In this presentation, the LSD technique will be introduced and several examples of application to porcelain, SiC and alumina products will be reported.
Nominal-actual comparisons are routinely performed to compare a manufactured specimen to a reference specimen. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) has brought a profound change in the way that tolerance verifications are performed in industry, by allowing the inner and outer geometries of an object to be measured, without the need for external access or destructive testing. As a results, CT is increasingly used in additive manufacturing applications, where a nominal-actual comparison performed between the digital model (CAD file), used as an input for the 3D printer, and the CT volume from the printed part, can provide invaluable information as to the accuracy of the printing process. However, the nominal-actual comparison process is somewhat different when applied to additively manufactured specimens by comparison to conventionally manufactured specimens.
Nominal-actual comparisons are routinely performed to compare a manufactured specimen to a reference specimen. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) has brought a profound change in the way that tolerance verifications are performed in industry, by allowing the inner and outer geometries of an object to be measured, without the need for external access or destructive testing. As a results, CT is increasingly used in additive manufacturing applications, where a nominal-actual comparison performed between the digital model (CAD file), used as an input for the 3D printer, and the CT volume from the printed part, can provide invaluable information as to the accuracy of the printing process. However, the nominal-actual comparison process is somewhat different when applied to additively manufactured specimens by comparison to conventionally manufactured specimens.
In this work, the structural integrity of LBM fabricated IN625 small cylinders (d = 1 mm, h = 6 mm) was investigated regarding the porosity and the surface roughness by means of computed tomography. The measurements were carried out on a GE v|tome|x L 300/180 with a reconstructed voxel size of 2 µm. The pores were analyzed for size, shape and spatial distribution. The correlation between compactness C and spatial distribution showed that elongated pores (C < 0.2) appear exclusively within a distance of 80 µm to the sample surface. The reconstructed surface was digitally meshed and unwrapped to evaluate the mean roughness Ra. Since the gravity correlates linearly with the sine of the build angle, the influence of gravity on porosity and surface roughness was determined.
The quality of components made by laser beam melting (LBM) additive manufacturing is naturally influenced by the quality of the powder bed. A packing density <1 and porosity inside the powder particles lead to intrinsic voids in the powder bed. Since the packing density is determined by the particle size and shape distribution, the determination of these properties is of significant interest to assess the printing process. In this work, the size and shape distribution, the amount of the particle’s intrinsic porosity, as well as the packing density of micrometric powder used for LBM, have been investigated by means of synchrotron X-ray computed tomography (CT). Two different powder batches were investigated: Ti–6Al–4V produced by plasma atomization and stainless steel 316L produced by gas atomization. Plasma atomization particles were observed to be more spherical in terms of the mean anisotropy compared to particles produced by gas atomization. The two kinds of particles were comparable in size according to the equivalent diameter. The packing density was lower (i.e., the powder bed contained more voids in between particles) for the Ti–6Al–4V particles. The comparison of the tomographic results with laser diffraction, as another particle size measurement technique, proved to be in agreement.
Avoid living dangerously: non-destructive characterization of AM parts from powder to end-of-life
(2019)
The freeform and the revolutionary design possibilities offered by additive manufacturing have skyrocketed the amount of optimization studies in the realm of engineering, and metallic additive manufactured parts are becoming a reality in industry.
Not surprisingly, this has not been paralleled by a similar enthusiastic wave in the realm of materials science, and still very little is known about AM materials properties. This has the consequence that, typically, conventional materials properties are still used in design and even in simulations.
lt is necessary to dig a lot deeper than at present, in order to understand these new materials classes, and in particular their microstructure and their intemal stresses, largely different from their cast or wrought companions.
Using non-optimum combination of manufacturing parameters in selective laser melting (SLM) may lead to reduction of quality of component: defects generation, distortion of geometry and even cracking. Usually, the optimization of parameters is performed by changing volumetric energy density (Ev) and selecting parameters giving low porosity values. However, not only low porosity but also stable microstructure and low residual stresses will help to achieve advanced mechanical behavior of the component.
In present work, we investigated cuboid-shaped Ti-6Al-4V samples produced with different manufacturing parameters. The parameters leading to the same Ev were considered as well as parameters which are not included in Ev. Residual stresses in subsurface region were investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, which allows to penetrate around 100 µm from the surface therefore overcome the problem of high roughness of SLM components without additional sample preparation. Only tensile stresses were found along the building direction, that can play critical role especially during cyclic loading. In parallel, using X-ray computed tomography we also observe that porosity is mainly concentrated in the contour region, except in case where the laser speed is small. However, by using some process parameters it was possible to decrease residual stresses and obtain uniform α+β Ti microstructure and relatively low porosity. Additionally, it was found that not included in Ev (e.g., base plate position, focus distance) should be considered as additional manufacturing parameters during SLM process.
The porosity and the surface roughness are recently discussed problems for SLM parts. The influence of SLM process parameters on porosity is well studied for different materials. Nevertheless, the build angle (i.e. the angle between part orientation and build plate) needs to be understood as an additional SLM process parameter, as it has been shown, that the microstructure and hence the mechanical performance of various materials depend on the build angle. The inherent build angle of each strut as a part of a lattice structure is the motivation to investigate the influence of the build angle on the porosity and roughness on round-shaped (1 mm diameter) struts by means of CT. Conventional Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) has the limitation towards small and round shaped samples. The need for Computed Tomography (CT) regarding investigations of SLM parts will increase because no other non-destructive technique allows the assessment of complex geometries with inner laying surfaces. We used CT to assess the pores and the strut surface. Seven struts out of the nickel alloy Inconel 625 with build angles from 30° to 90° were studied. It was found that the number of pores is smaller, and the size of pores is larger for the 90° strut. In case of 30° strut, the number of pores is increased towards down-skin side, additionally, this strut orientation showed to have the largest number of attached powder particles. The elongated pores exist exclusively near the strut surface. While the roughness at the down-skin surface is highly depending of the biud angle, the roughness at the up-skin surface is the same for all struts. The mechanisms of pore and surface roughness formation is not mainly driven by gravity.
Additive manufacturing (AM) opens the route to a range of novel applications. However, the complexity of the manufacturing process poses a challenge to produce defect-free parts with a high reliability. Since process dynamics and resulting microstructures of AM parts are strongly influenced by the involved temperature fields and cooling rates, thermography is a valuable tool for process monitoring. Another approach to monitor the energy input into the part during process is the use of optical tomography.
Common visual camera systems reach much higher spatial resolution than infrared thermography cameras, whereas infrared thermography provides a much higher temperature dynamic. Therefore, the combined application increases the depth of information. Here, we present first measurement results using a laser beam melting setup that allows simultaneous acquisition of thermography and optical tomography from the same point of view using a beam splitter. A high-resolution CMOS camera operating in the visible spectral range is equipped with a near infrared bandpass filter and images of the build plate are recorded with long-term exposure during the whole layer exposing time. Thus, areas that reach higher maximum temperature or are at elevated temperature for an extended period of time appear brighter in the images. The used thermography camera is sensitive to the mid wavelength infrared range and records thermal videos of each layer exposure at an acquisition rate close to 1 kHz.
As a next step, we will use computer tomographic data of the built part as a reference for defect detection.
This research was funded by BAM within the focus area Materials.