Potential Of Additive Manufacturing Technologies Research Articles

Benchmarking L-PBF Systems for Die Production: Powder, Dimensional, Surface, Microstructural and Mechanical Characterisation

While conventional die manufacturing techniques often lead to limitations in production speed and design intricacy due to labour-intensive procedures like machining and casting, Additive Manufacturing (AM) emerges as a key player offering substantial potential for cost reduction and process improvement in mass production. This study benchmarks four leading Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) systems for producing maraging steel (EN 1.2709) dies. Despite the shared material and technology, variations in dimensional accuracy, surface finish, and microstructure were observed among the maraging steel parts. SEM/EDS, EBSD, hardness testing, and dimensional analysis revealed system-specific performance differences. Additionally, select parts underwent heat treatment and tensile testing, demonstrating the impact of post-processing on mechanical properties. These results offer valuable guidance for industrial stakeholders considering AM, highlighting the importance of supplier selection and process optimisation for achieving consistent part quality and unlocking the full potential of AM technologies.

Framework for Adoption of Metal Additive Manufacturing in the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa

The oil and gas industry in Africa is under mounting pressure to elevate operational efficiency and curb costs, even as supply chain challenges stemming from the pandemic persist. Additive manufacturing (AM) emerges as a unique solution with the potential to free segments of the industry from conventional supply chains. This study introduces a framework tailored to the distinctive challenges and opportunities of the African oil and gas sector, aiming to facilitate the effective adoption of metal AM. Considering constraints such as supply chain limitations, unstable electricity supply, remote locations, and limited manufacturing facilities, this framework intends to guide stakeholders in leveraging the transformative potential of AM technology while overcoming potential barriers. Leveraging a literature review, expert insights, and real-world scenarios, the study assesses the current state of metal AM in the oil and gas sector. The framework's applicability is demonstrated through a case study of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, while acknowledging the specific African context. It uncovers the existing state of metal AM in Africa and identifies various facilities along with their constraints. Encompassing domains such as prototyping, customized tooling, complex component fabrication, and spare part production, the framework addresses challenges like cultural shifts, quality control, and facility sustainability. It offers key stages encompassing technology assessment, workforce training, and strategic planning to drive the transition toward additive manufacturing. The adoption of metal AM in Africa's oil and gas sector holds the potential to significantly enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness, yet it necessitates overcoming multifaceted challenges. The proposed framework presents a strategic roadmap for harnessing this technology's transformative potential. By embracing innovation and surmounting region-specific obstacles, Africa's oil and gas industry can attain enhanced efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and adaptability

Additive Manufacturing of Titanium-Based Materials Using Electron Beam Wire 3D Printing Approach: Peculiarities, Advantages, and Prospects

Potential of additive manufacturing technologies, namely, xBeam 3D Metal Printing for the fabrication of uniform Ti–6Al–4V (Ti-6-4, mas.%) material as well as layered titanium-based structures, with mechanical properties sufficient for wide practical application is demonstrated. The key distinctive features of this process are titanium alloy wire as a feedstock material and hollow conical electron beam for heating and melting of the wire. 3D printed with special ‘shift strategy’ Ti-6-4 alloy meets requirements to mechanical characteristics of corresponding conventional cast and wrought products, if microstructure features, material anisotropy and crystallographic texture are controlled with proper selection of processing parameters. Production of multilayered materials consisting of combined layers of different titanium materials, viz. commercially pure titanium (CP-Ti), Ti-6-4 and high-strength T110 alloys, as well as metal matrix composites (MMC) based on Ti-6-4 matrix reinforced by fine TiC particles is considered. Microstructural features and mechanical properties of all 3D printed materials are investigated. Terminal ballistic tests are performed with different ammunition. Described results show the promising potential of 3D printing technologies, xBeam 3D Metal Printing as an example, for manufacturing of titanium-based multilayered armour materials with reduced thickness and weight, and at the same time, sufficient protection characteristics.

Additive manufacturing for biomedical applications: a review on classification, energy consumption, and its appreciable role since COVID-19 pandemic.

The exponential rise of healthcare problems like human aging and road traffic accidents have developed an intrinsic challenge to biomedical sectors concerning the arrangement of patient-specific biomedical products. The additively manufactured implants and scaffolds have captured global attention over the last two decades concerning their printing quality and ease of manufacturing. However, the inherent challenges associated with additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, namely process selection, level of complexity, printing speed, resolution, biomaterial choice, and consumed energy, still pose several limitations on their use. Recently, the whole world has faced severe supply chain disruptions of personal protective equipment and basic medical facilities due to a respiratory disease known as the coronavirus (COVID-19). In this regard, local and global AM manufacturers have printed biomedical products to level the supply-demand equation. The potential of AM technologies for biomedical applications before, during, and post-COVID-19 pandemic alongwith its relation to the industry 4.0 (I4.0) concept is discussed herein. Moreover, additive manufacturing technologies are studied in this work concerning their working principle, classification, materials, processing variables, output responses, merits, challenges, and biomedical applications. Different factors affecting the sustainable performance in AM for biomedical applications are discussed with more focus on the comparative examination of consumed energy to determine which process is more sustainable. The recent advancements in the field like 4D printing and 5D printing are useful for the successful implementation of I4.0 to combat any future pandemic scenario. The potential of hybrid printing, multi-materials printing, and printing with smart materials, has been identified as hot research areas to produce scaffolds and implants in regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, and orthopedic implants.

Optimizing fused deposition modelling parameters based on the design for additive manufacturing to enhance product sustainability

Nowadays, designers and engineers rely on specific manufacturing guidelines to bring quality products to market with minimum time and error. Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is one of these guides adapted to Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies used to increase the operational performance of components, minimise material waste and provide design flexibility. DfAM optimises three-dimensional (3D) printing parameters to maximise the potential of AM technologies. DfAM improves ecological performance and provides many advantages for the transition to a circular economy by providing resource efficiency and enabling the production of parts with reduced weight without changing their mechanical strength. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the infill density, infill pattern and layer thickness on the printing time, weight, Young’s modulus, compressive stress, surface roughness, tensile strength, CO2 emissions and amount of material used for the samples printed using Poly-lactic acid (PLA) in the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) method. PLA has been chosen because it is a natural and recyclable polymer derived entirely from plant sources. In the printing process, samples with different mechanical properties have been obtained by changing the infill density (25%, 50% and 75%), the infill pattern (gyroid, triangle and grid) and the layer thickness (100, 150 and 200 µm) parameters. The Design of Experiment (DoE) method is provided to find optimal combinations of the selected parameters. According to the results of the study, the effect of the layer thickness differs on each output. While the infill density is 75%, grid and triangle structures generally give the best results among the infill patterns; infill density of 25% varies according to the infill pattern. The gyroid and triangle patterns give optimum results for less layer thickness (e.g. 100 µm), while the grid should be preferred for higher layer thickness (e.g. 200 µm).

Building supply chain resilience and efficiency through additive manufacturing: An ambidextrous perspective on the dynamic capability view

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, a wide range of scholars and practitioners have come to recognize the potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology in building supply chain resilience and efficiency. However, it remains unclear how AM technology might be able to simultaneously build supply chain efficiency and resilience, given the often conflicting nature of these qualities. This paper employs an ambidextrous perspective on dynamic capability theory to investigate the potential of AM technology to solve this resilience-efficiency dilemma at the supply chain level. The research design involves a hybrid approach, combining focus groups and multiple case studies, with particular attention paid to the African supply chain context. The findings indicate that AM technology presents the potential to develop ambidextrous dynamic capabilities, leading to the reconciliation of resilience and efficiency at the supply chain level. Some determinants, such as data-driven systems, supply chain collaboration, innovation agility and knowledge are found to be critical to enable the development of those capabilities around AM-enabled manufacturing systems. The study contributes to the preparation of the global supply chain for the post-COVID era, where digital technologies such as AM will be fundamental for both building resilience and efficiency simultaneously. Practitioners in emerging economies may benefit directly from the outcomes of this study. Furthermore, managers and policy-makers in developed countries may be made aware of the significance of using AM technology in emerging countries to enhance the performance of the global supply chain.

Additive manufacturing of martensitic stainless steel matrix composites with simultaneously enhanced strength-ductility and corrosion resistance

Many traditional methods for strengthening martensitic stainless steel (SS) typically come at the sacrifice of ductility. Herein, we report a configuration design of ceramic particles for reinforcing additively manufactured 15-5 PH martensitic SS with an optimized combination of high-strength and impressively larger ductility via the micron-sized TiC addition. High strength is ascribed to grain refinement, Orowan bowing strengthening, and abundant nucleation of nanoscale (Nb,Ti)C precipitates, while high elongation correlates to the reduced oxide inclusion content, martensite/austenite duplex microstructure, and progressive transformation-induced plasticity effect. In addition, severe localized corrosion is completely inhibited. This work shows the great potential of additive manufacturing technology to fabricate Fe-based composites with unique microstructures, low residual stress levels, excellent corrosion resistance , and an exceptional combination of strength and ductility for practical applications.

Comparison of the EHLA and LPBF Process in Context of New Alloy Design Methods for LPBF

Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes are becoming more and more important for production of parts with increasing geometrical complexity and functionality. However, to draw on the full potential of AM technologies, alloys that exploit process inherent particularities such as extremely high cooling rates (ca. 106 K/s) have to be developed. One of most important AM-processes is Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), a batch-wise process. This complicates experimental alloy development and increases the use of powder resources since only one chemical composition can be tested within one test job and the process chamber has to be cleaned carefully in between. The process Extreme High-Speed Laser Material Deposition (EHLA) has been found to have similar cooling rates as LPBF, however it uses an in situ supply of powders which allows an easy switching between materials and has potential for rapid alloy development methods. Since the mechanical properties of materials primarily depend on chemical composition and microstructure, which in turn depends heavily on the cooling rates in the production process, the EHLA-process could be used as a means for an accelerated alloy development for LPBF. However, to explore this possibility, a thorough comparison of the two processes has to be performed.In this work, EHLA and LPBF processes are compared and evaluated regarding the following characteristics: process parameters, laser intensities and volume energy densities, resulting microstructure (primary dendrite arm spacing, DAS), melt pool size and shape. The reference samples were manufactured using one set of LPBF process parameters and EHLA samples were manufactured using three different sets of process parameters.The volume energy densities Ev [J/mm³] of the processes were found to differ by a factor 2.4 with higher Ev observed in LPBF. However, considering that approximately 2 to 3 layers are remelted with each pass of the laser beam, the introduced Ev per pass approximates the Ev introduced in the EHLA process. The melt pool size as seen in a cross section in the EHLA-manufactured samples is approximately 25 times larger than in the LPBF-manufactured samples and its depth to width ratio (d/w ratio) can be attributed to a heat conduction welding process while the d/w ratio observed in the LPBF-manufactured sample suggests a transition process between heat conduction welding and deep welding. The observed DAS is in the same order of magnitude for both processes ranging from 0.55 to 1.15 µm in EHLA-manufactured samples and 0.73 µm in the LPBF-manufactured reference sample. Since the resulting microstructures of samples manufactured with both processes show this common feature and EHLA process parameters can be adjusted to control the cooling rates, the transferability between EHLA- and LPBF-processes is supported in this first investigation. Research for a more efficient alloy development for LPBF using EHLA will be continued by e.g. examining chemical compositions and performing mechanical testing.

Additive manufacturing for energy: A review

The conflict between rapidly growing global energy demand and climate change is a grand challenge that requires significant science and technology innovations. Advanced manufacturing could extensively drive down greenhouse gas emission and pollution, and shorten the time-to-market. Additive manufacturing is a process of fabricating three-dimensional objects by depositing materials layer-by-layer directly from computational geometry model, and it eliminates the design and fabrication restrictions of conventional manufacturing methods to a large extent. As an emerging and transformative technology, additive manufacturing technologies have shown the potential benefits of energy saving in multiple energy sectors. To further increase their applications in nuclear energy and renewable energies, fundamental research is needed to overcome some key challenges in terms of process monitoring and control, dimension accuracy, and structural integrity of the components. The validation and qualification of additive manufacturing processes and the products from those additive manufacturing processes are imperative to meeting the high standards of critical components in various energy production, conversion and storage systems. In this review article, we summarize the current status of cutting-edge additive manufacturing technologies and their applications in the fields of nuclear energy, battery, fuel cell, oil & gas. We also outline the major challenges and fundamental research needed to achieve the full potential of additive manufacturing technologies. This review provides critical discussion and prospects to address global energy challenges by applying innovative additive manufacturing technologies.

A Review of the Applications of Additive Manufacturing Technologies Used to Fabricate Metals in Implant Dentistry.

To review the primary additive manufacturing (AM) technologies used to fabricate metals in implant dentistry and compare them to conventional casting and subtractive methods. The literature on metal AM technologies was reviewed, and the AM procedures and their current applications in implant dentistry were collated and described. Collection of published articles about metal AM in dental field data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBSCO, and Web of Science searched. All studies related to AM technology description, analysis, and evaluation of applications in implant dentistry, including AM titanium (Ti) dental implants, customized Ti mesh for bone grafting techniques, cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) frameworks for implant impression procedures, and Co-Cr and Ti frameworks for dental implant-supported prostheses were reviewed. Literature has demonstrated the potential of AM technologies to fabricate dental implants, root-analog implants, and functionally graded implants; as well as the ability to fabricate customized meshes for bone grafting procedures. Metal AM technologies provide a reliable method to manufacture frameworks for implant impression procedures. Co-Cr and Ti AM frameworks for implant-supported prostheses provide a clinically acceptable discrepancy at the implant-prostheses interface. Additional clinical studies are required to assess the long-term clinical performance, biological and mechanical complications, and prosthetic restoration capabilities of additively manufactured dental implants. Moreover, further studies are needed to evaluate their long-term success and survival rates and biological and mechanical complications of AM implant-supported prostheses.

The potential of additive manufacturing technologies and their processing parameters for the fabrication of all-ceramic crowns: A review.

This article aims to provide a review of the additive manufacturing technologies and the processing parameters that have been investigated for the fabrication of all ceramic crowns. Additive manufacturing has crept its way into the field of dentistry for the fabrication of resin and metal prosthesis. To evaluate the current status of additive manufacturing for the fabrication of all ceramic crowns, literature review was targeted to include publications pertaining to the fabrication of dental ceramics and all ceramic crowns. With respect to the additive manufacturing of dental ceramics, five technologies have been investigated to date: stereolithography, material extrusion, powder based fusion, direct inkjet printing, and binder jetting. The processing parameters and experimental outcomes were collated and described for each of the aforementioned technologies. Additive manufacturing has demonstrated promising experimental outcomes and corroborated to the fabrication all ceramic crowns. However, the technology is yet to witness a commercial breakthrough within this domain. Additive manufacturing mitigates raw material wastage and tooling stresses that are associated with milling of ceramics. Continued research and development can lead to its approbation as an alternate technology for manufacturing all ceramic restorations.

A Suitability Analysis Method for Additive Manufacturing Technologies in Small and Medium-Sized Companies

Additive manufacturing is a key technology which applies the ideas of Industry 4.0 in order to enable the production of personalized and highly customized products economically. Especially small and medium sized companies often lack the competence and experience to evaluate objectively and profoundly the potential of additive manufacturing technologies. This paper presents a systematic and user-oriented method for a suitability analysis for the application of additive manufacturing technologies in small and medium sized companies. Furthermore, the method has been validated in a small medical technology company evaluating the additive manufacturing potential of an existing surgery tool.

Harnessing the potential of additive manufacturing technologies: Challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurial strategies

Additive manufacturing (AM), a revolutionary production technique that will make many previously inconceivable innovations a reality, is transforming the manufacturing sector. The technologies behind AM have a generic character and possess immense and transformative potential that will be felt across different sectors of the economy. This paper studies how entrepreneurs can access, exploit, and diffuse this new disruptive knowledge, as well as the potential challenges that lie ahead. Further, we examine the magnitude of the knowledge pool created by the Top 10 countries in AM research from 2011 to 2016; specifically, we determine the leading countries, the pattern of organizational and international collaborations, leading disciplines contributing to AM, and the pattern in authors' affiliations. We find that the US is clearly the dominant country, while China witnessed a notable acceleration in AM research between 2014 and 2016; we also show that universities are the predominant actor in codified AM knowledge creation. Using this information, we paint a vivid picture of the technological and market opportunities for entrepreneurs and identify the gaps in the current knowledge production environment; we find that the challenges currently faced by entrepreneurs could be overcome through academic entrepreneurship, collective entrepreneurship, and the actions of an entrepreneurial state.

Shape and topology optimization considering anisotropic features induced by additive manufacturing processes

This article considers the modeling of the effective properties of the constituent material of structures fabricated by additive manufacturing technologies; the influence of these properties on the design optimization process is analyzed, and the opportunities that they offer in this context are investigated. On the one hand, emphasizing on the case where the particular material extrusion techniques are used for the construction, we propose a model for the anisotropic material properties of shapes depending on the (user-defined) trajectory followed by the machine tool during the assembly of their 2d layers. On the other hand, we take advantage of the potential of additive manufacturing technologies for constructing very small features: we consider the optimization of the infill region of a shape with given external contour with the goal to improve at the same time its lightness and its robustness. The optimized and constraint functionals of the domain involved in the shape optimization problems in both contexts are rigorously analyzed, notably by relying on the notion of signed distance function. Eventually, several numerical experiments are conducted in two dimensions to illustrate the main points of the study.

Design for Additive Manufacturing: Optimization of Piping Network in Compact System With Enhanced Path-Finding Approach

This research aims at unleashing the potential of additive manufacturing technology in industrial design that can produce structures/devices with irregular component geometries to reduce sizes/weights. We explore, by means of path-finding, the length minimization of freeform hydraulic piping network in compact space under given constraints. Previous studies on path-finding have mainly focused on enhancing computational efficiency due to the need to produce rapid results in such as navigation and video-game applications. In this research, we develop a new Focal Any-Angle A* approach that combines the merits of grid-based method and visibility graph-based method. Specifically, we formulate pruned visibility graphs preserving only the useful portion of the vertices and then find the optimal path based on the candidate vertices using A*. The reduced visibility graphs enable us to outperform approximations and maintain the optimality of exact algorithms in a more efficient manner. The algorithm proposed is compared to the traditional A* on Grids, Theta* and A* on visibility graphs in terms of path length, number of nodes evaluated, as well as computational time. As demonstrated and validated through case studies, the proposed method is capable of finding the shortest path with tractable computational cost, which provides a viable design tool for the additive manufacturing of piping network systems.

Design and Analysis of Lattice Structures for Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables time and cost savings in the product development process. It has great potential in the manufacturing of lighter parts or tools by the embedding of cellular/lattice structures that consume less material while still distributing the necessary strength. Less weight and less material consumption can lead to enormous energy and cost savings. Although AM has come a long way over the past 25–30 years since the first technology was invented, the design of parts and tools that capitalize on the technology do not yet encompass its full potential. Designing for AM requires departing from traditional design guidelines and adopting new design considerations and thought structures. Where previous manufacturing techniques (computer numerical control (CNC) machining, casting, etc.) often necessitated solid parts, AM allows for complex parts with cellular and lattice structure implementation. The lattice structure geometry can be manipulated to deliver the level of performance required of the part. The development and research of different cell and lattice structures for lightweight design is of significant interest for realizing the full potential of AM technologies. The research not only includes analysis of existing software tools to design and optimize cell structures, but it also involves design consideration of different unit cell structures. This paper gives a solid foundation of an experimental analysis of additive manufactured parts with diverse unit cell structures in compression and flexural tests. Although the research also includes theoretical finite element analysis (FEA) of the models, the results are not considered here. As an introduction, the paper briefly explains the basics of stress and strain relationship and summarizes the test procedure and methods. The tests concentrate primarily on the analysis of 3D printed polymer parts manufactured using PolyJet technology. The results show the behavior of test specimens with different cell structures under compression and bending load. However, the research has been extended and is still ongoing with an analysis of selective laser melted test specimens in aluminum alloy AlSi10Mg.

The pedagogy of using a RP architectural model

The limitless potential of additive manufacturing technologies makes it attractive to harness as the embodiment of cornucopian visions for future environments and this ideology has caught the attention of many architectural schools and practices. Within the remit of architectural education, students exhibit their rapid prototyping (RP) models as a casting of the final structure. These RP models facilitate a solid transformation of the complexity of their CAD models, which can sometimes distract from the architectural quality of space and function that is required. This paper discusses the condition of RP in the context of architectural design. It looks to question how to utilise the technology for its intended purpose. Through theoretical design projects and pedagogic methods, the paper will discuss the possibility RP has as an emerging construction technology which could add significant cultural value to our built environment.

Anisotropic diffusion of self-interstitials in zirconium

The conflict between rapidly growing global energy demand and climate change is a grand challenge that requires significant science and technology innovations. Advanced manufacturing could extensively drive down greenhouse gas emission and pollution, and shorten the time-to-market. Additive manufacturing is a process of fabricating three-dimensional objects by depositing materials layer-by-layer directly from computational geometry model, and it eliminates the design and fabrication restrictions of conventional manufacturing methods to a large extent. As an emerging and transformative technology, additive manufacturing technologies have shown the potential benefits of energy saving in multiple energy sectors. To further increase their applications in nuclear energy and renewable energies, fundamental research is needed to overcome some key challenges in terms of process monitoring and control, dimension accuracy, and structural integrity of the components. The validation and qualification of additive manufacturing processes and the products from those additive manufacturing processes are imperative to meeting the high standards of critical components in various energy production, conversion and storage systems. In this review article, we summarize the current status of cutting-edge additive manufacturing technologies and their applications in the fields of nuclear energy, battery, fuel cell, oil & gas. We also outline the major challenges and fundamental research needed to achieve the full potential of additive manufacturing technologies. This review provides critical discussion and prospects to address global energy challenges by applying innovative additive manufacturing technologies.