Lasers-based Manufacturing

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3D Printing of Metals - What is holding it back
(and the Materials Science behind it)?

Claus G. Rebholz, Ph.D.

LASER TECHNOLOGY – Fall 2020

Today’s Program
• 3D Printing of Metals
• Problems (fatigue life, costs)
• Imperfections
• Post processing
• ...

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 3D Printing
Well established for prototypes

3D Printing (2)
Powder Bed vs. Plastic Wire 3D Printing

vs.

Powder Bed 3D Printing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBHsfNDsbCs

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 3D Printing (3)
• Stereolithography 3D Printer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97ARLiTHjX0

3D Printing (4)
• Beyond 3D Printing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihR9SX7dgRo&t=123s

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 3D Printing (5)
• 3D Printing: Transforming creativity for the
‘4th Industrial Revolution’?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsJLZ1UYxGc

3D Printing of Metals
• Selective Laser Melting (SLM) vs Direct Metal
Deposition (DMD)

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 3D Printing of Metals (2)
• 3D printing opening doors to new designs!
• Compared to classical machining complicated designs
are possible (integrated cooling channels...).

3D Printing of Metals (3)

• Build new understanding and develop completely novel
techniques to study and optimise material properties.
• Reduction of material waste.
• For example, machining of titanium alloys for
areospace applications (up to 90% waste material).

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 3D Printing of Metals (4)
Other advantages:
•Variety of applications
•Complex geometries
•Individual design
•Tailored structures
•Functional driven design
•Micro structures

3D Printing of Metals (5)

Disadvantages:
•Mechanical anisotropy.
•Porosity and lack of fusion
•Surface roughness is high –
•Cracking and Delamination
•Residual stresses and Distortion

Effect of scanning
speed on porosity

Effect of laser power

on porosity

H.D. Carlton et al, Mater. Sci. Eng. (2017)

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Mainly for Prototypes – Why?
3D printing to reduce costs and print the perfect
object?

Amazing applications possible (aero space...), but mainly

used for prototyping. WHY?

Failure of 3D Printed Parts

3D printed parts fail much sooner, stopping the approval
of many parts!

Why does this happen?

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 Fatigue Life
One big issue is fatigue life: how many cycles of stress
a part can sustain before breaking.
Materials can fracture before their ultimate strength
if cycled at a lower strength for extended periods.

This affects every metal. Continious maintenance

needed for all machinery.

Fatique Life (2)

Primary cause of fatique failure are cracks and
imperfections in parts (stress can be converted, pile up
in sharp corners, growth of stress...).

3D printed parts tend to have a lot of imperfections!

Remember:

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 Output vs Costs
3D printing can take manufacturing to next evolution,
but what is holding it back?

3D printing: Welding hundreds of kilometers of powders

together.

Output vs Costs (2)

For traditional manufacturing processes (e.g. injection
molding).

First expensive to produce mold. The more parts are

produced, the lower the cost per part (dominant factor
is then the material cost).

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 Output vs Costs (2)
Remember (MMK347/348):

Relative unit costs of a

small connecting rod
made by various
forging and casting
processes.
Note that, for large
quantities, forging is
more economical. Sand
casting is the more
economical process for
fewer than about
20,000 pieces.

Output vs Costs (3)

Traditional manufacturing processes versus 3D printing

Only 3D printing for parts that fall behind the break

even point.

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 Output vs Costs (4)
Reduction of raw material costs (better supplies)
Decrease 3D printer machine costs
the line can be lowered.

Materials Science in 3D Printing

However, it’s not just costs preventing from 3D parts
entering the market. It’s also the materials science
behind it.
Thousands of years of experience (mainly trial and
error) on how manufacturing techniques affect the
materials properties of the metals we us.
For example, effect of (a) carbon content in steel
(casting), (b) hot forging on crystalline structure (bulk
deformation processes), (c) how heating and cooling
affects materials properties (heat treatment).
BUT additive manufacturing ”throws away” lots of the
techniques we have developed.

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 3D Printing Metal Powders
3D powders through atomization.

Remember (MMK348):

Imperfections in 3D Printing
3D printed materials tend to have a lot of
imperfections.

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Imperfections in 3D Printing (2)
High speed imaging

Imperfections in 3D Printing (3)

High speed imaging

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Imperfections in 3D Printing (4)
As the laser moves accros the powder bed it melts it
and forms a weld line.
Laser digs into powder bed and creates imperfections.

The laser tends to dig into the powder bed and creates
a track that varies in height, resulting in imperfections.

Imperfections in 3D Printing (5)

Post treatment of parts needed to remove
imperfections on surface (surface machining... to create
quaility part).

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Imperfections in 3D Printing (6)
Powder in front of laser gets blown away.

Laser has no longer metal powder to melt in that region

and instead form new bead molten metal ahead of the
original track, which eventially coalescence with the
original.

Cooling of metal pores

visible on surface

Imperfections in 3D Printing (7)

Behaviour dependent on laser power, speed....
Here speed increase to a point where metal particles do
not have enough time to heat up and coalesce.

Investigation of two melt tracks. Trapping of gas...

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Imperfections in 3D Printing (8)
Complicated process

More than just melting powders together.

Printed parts are far from finished, need a significant
amount of post processing.

Imperfections in 3D Printing (9)

Closing of pores required to increase strength...

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 Post Prossessing
Closing of pores required to increase strength... through
Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP)
Heat and high isostatic pressures (maintains the overall
part shape) but heats up part and closes pores.

Post Prossessing (2)

Remember (MMK347/348):

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 Post Processing (3)

Closing of pores.

Post Processing (4)

Increase on costs less attractive for applications
outside rapid prototyping.

HIP Treatment

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 Grain Formation
Crystalline structure very important!
Typically when a metal is cooled crystalls grow at
random from individual nucleation sites and form
crystall grains.
Size and structure and grains dictates so many of the
materials final properties.

Learnt over thousands of years metal forging how to

get the best out of our materials. Not the case for 3D
printing.

Grain Formation (2)

Remember (MMK347/348) Forging:

Forging and grain size.

Hot forging
reduces porosity.

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 Grain Formation (3)
Colunar grains that rise up in the direction of the print
Grains tend to follow the direction of the laser

Print direction
Think of grains in wood.

Scan Strategies
How the laser moves has a massive effect on the
materials properties.

Tailoring of laser scan strategy possible.

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 Scan Strategies (2)
Island scan strategy.
Island formed in a randam sequense.

Developed to decrease residual stresses as a result of

uneven heating and cooling within the metal.

Scan Strategies (3)

Often parts need to be placed in an oven
after printing to eliviate residual stresses.

Scan strategy has some unique effects

High density
of cracks (can
grow, cause
fatigue
failure...)

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 Scan Strategies (4)
Helical scan strategy (as an alternative).

In-situ monitoring tools (cameras...) in chamber to

observe temeperature... effects.

3D Printing - Outlook
3D printing not forseeable to be used for low cost high
volume parts (other manufacturing processes much
better suited).
Improve fatique life more applications posssible.
Still relatively new area of research.
Education of how to design parts using 3D printing...

Combination of materials science and machine learning...

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 Powder composition 3D Printing – Process
Parameters (examples)
Powder geometry and
deposition

3D Printing – Process
Parameters (examples) Laser

Powder bed

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 Environment
3D Printing – Process
Parameters (examples)
Processing parameters

3D Printing – Research Results

Melting process

Influence of laser power and scan speed on

grown/morphology
Results from Yiannos Ioannou
PhD Student Montanuniversität Leoben/Austria
A thermomechanical Study of Laser Additive Manufacturing

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THE END

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