Labor Additive and Intelligent Manufacturing for Sustainability (AIMS)
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First results regarding the realisation of multi-material components manufactured by Laser Beam Melting of polymers and metals are published. For realising composite structures from polymer powders by additive manufacturing, at first relevant material properties regarding compatibility have to be analysed. The paper shows the main requirements for compatibility between different materials and offers first results in form of a compatibility matrix of possible combinations for composite structures.For achieving gradient properties of additively manufactured metal parts by using composite materials the composition of alloying components in the powder and adapted process strategies are varied. As an alternative to atomizing pre-alloyed materials, mixtures of different powders are investigated.
The generation of multi-material components by laser beam melting (LBM) is a challenge which requires the invention of new coating devices for preparation of arbitrary powder patterns. One solution is the usage of vibration-controlled nozzles for selective deposition of polymer powders. Powder flow can be initiated by vibration enabling a start-stop function without using any mechanical shutter. In this report, the delivery of polymer powder by vibrating nozzles is investigated with respect to their application in LBM machines. Therefore, a steel nozzle attached to a piezo actor and a weighing cell is used in order to measure the stability and time-dependence of the powder mass flow upon vibration excitation with the usage of different kind of powder formulations. The results show that precompression of the powder inside the nozzle by vibration excitation is essential to realize a reliable start-stop function with reproducible discharge cyles and to prevent a initial flush of powder flow. Moreover, the use of different powder materials showed that mass flow is even possible with powders which are not optimized regarding flowability, but is readily enhanced with a factor of 2 to 3 by admixing Aerosil® fumed silica.