Abstract
Commercial powder bed fusion additive manufacturing systems use re-coaters for the layer-by-layer distribution of powder. Despite the known limitations of re-coaters, there has been relatively little work presented on the possible benefits of alternative powder delivery systems. Here, we reveal a feeding technology that uses vibration to control flow for powder bed additive manufacturing. The capabilities of this approach are illustrated experimentally using two very different powders; a ‘conventional’ gas atomized Ti-6Al-4V powder designed for electron beam additive manufacturing and a water atomized Fe-4 wt.% Ni alloy used in powder metallurgy. Single layer melt trials are shown for the water atomized powder to illustrate the fidelity of the melt tracks in this material. Discrete element modelling is next used to reveal the mechanisms that underpin the observed dependence of feed rate on feeder process parameters and to investigate the potential strengths and limitations of this feeding methodology.
Highlights
While most aspects of process parameters in powder-bed based additive manufacturing have been explored in great detail, this mode of powder delivery has remained with few changes since the first commercial designs in laser and electron beam systems [7,8,9]
We have illustrated the use of a vibratory powder feeding system in conjunction with electron beam additive manufacturing
This method of feeding has been shown to have distinct advantages compared to powder coaters, in its ability to handle water atomized powder that would not be suitable with current commercial technologies
Summary
While most aspects of process parameters in powder-bed based additive manufacturing have been explored in great detail (see, e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6]), this mode of powder delivery has remained with few changes since the first commercial designs in laser and electron beam systems [7,8,9]. The basic elements of powder delivery using powder coating technology is largely the same across processes; powder is dosed according to the desired powder layer height from a hopper or reservoir, this powder being leveled across the powder bed using a rake or, in some cases, a roller [9]. Optimizing rake shape to improve various characteristics of the deposited powder bed has been investigated [10]
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