Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) has recently been accorded considerable interest by manufacturers. Many manufacturing industries, amongst others in the aerospace sector, are already using AM parts or are investing in such manufacturing methods. Important material properties, such as microstructures, residual stress, and surface topography, can be affected by AM processes. In addition, a subtractive manufacturing (SM) process, such as machining, is required for finishing certain parts when accurate tolerances are required. This finish machining will subsequently affect the surface integrity and topography of the material. In this research work, we focused on the surface integrity of Ti-6Al-4V parts manufactured using three different types of AM and finished using an SM step. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding on how each process affects the resulting surface integrity of the material. It was found that each AM process affects the materials’ properties differently and that clear differences exist compared to a reference material manufactured using conventional methods. The newly generated surface was investigated after the SM step and each combination of AM/SM resulted in differences in surface integrity. It was found that different AM processes result in different microstructures which in turn affect surface integrity after the SM process.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) is an increasingly popular manufacturing method in the aerospace and biomedical sectors, amongst others
Direct energy deposition (DED) and powder bed fusion (PBF) are common AM methods used for processing titanium and its alloys [3], but new 3D printing techniques are constantly in development [4]
Additive manufacturing applications have been growing in many industries such as in the aerospace and automotive sectors
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) is an increasingly popular manufacturing method in the aerospace and biomedical sectors, amongst others. Frazier [1] reviewed many of the existing 3D printing techniques and commented that “AM has the potential to revolutionize the global parts manufacturing and logistics landscape”. While AM can produce near net shape parts, an additional conventional subtractive manufacturing step, such as machining, is required when high dimensional tolerances and a defined surface finish are required. While different AM techniques are available today, the challenge is to control the input parameters, such as powder types, energy type and feeding methods, and to be able to predict quality output parameters. Direct energy deposition (DED) and powder bed fusion (PBF) are common AM methods used for processing titanium and its alloys [3], but new 3D printing techniques are constantly in development [4]
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