Guidelines when considering pre & post processing of large metal additive manufactured parts

Abstract

Interest in additive manufacturing (AM) is continuing to increase year-on-year across many different industrial sectors as it can provide significant design flexibility for generating highly complex components. However, present barriers preclude the potential of additive processes from performing optimally. Some of the barriers/challenges are recognised as: i) development of standard procedures for powder recyclability to potentially reduce direct manufacturing cost and provide a positive impact on the sustainability of additive processes; ii) finishing features such as internal pathways or lattices which still present a huge barrier as good surface quality may be a critical variable for certain applications within medical and aerospace industries; and iii) geometric limitations, particularly for Directed Energy Deposition (DED) AM methods. Therefore, eliminating any additional post processes for finishing operations could be beneficial for the efficiency of these additive processes. These challenges are still under investigation, particularly for manufacturing small and medium size components. Further research is needed when scaling up the process for manufacturing larger metallic components. Therefore, this research aims to map the stages involved in an AM process for metals and highlights the considerations to be taken when manufacturing large titanium alloy components (i.e. 1000 mm x 500 mm x 500 mm) via DED. The outcome of this study consists of supporting guidelines when considering pre and post processing of large additive manufacturing components.