The Additive Manufacturing Consortium (AMC), operated by EWI, is pleased to announce its 2024 research portfolio, which includes two new projects and two continuations:
- High-strength Aluminum Testing and Characterization of Commercially Available Materials (continued) – This project will continue to evaluate previously provided builds to examine the effect of HIPing on fatigue and elevated temperature mechanical properties, porosity regrowth during elevated temperature testing, and the effect of precipitates on the tested powder fatigue properties. Materials from Elementum 3D, Constellium, and EOS will be compared.
- AMC Material Properties Database (continued) – This project will develop digital thread tools to automatically capture AMC project data at the point of generation, contextualize it, and store it in a database. This functionality will be demonstrated using the Faster L-PBF project below and will serve as a baseline for data capture on future AMC projects.
- Faster L-PBF Consolidation Rates Via High-powered Lasers (new) – The goals of this project are to evaluate pathways towards a 4-6x improvement in consolidation rates in L-PBF on a single-laser basis. All experiments will be executed on EWI’s open architecture L-PBF system, enabled with a high-power laser (3-kW near infrared ) and a compatible galvanometer-scanner. The print experiments are expected to be executed in a nitrogen atmosphere.
- Post-finishing Evaluation and Powder-removal Verification Techniques (new) – There has always been concern around the roughness of metal AM parts and how they can be post processed to improve surface finish. In addition, removing trapped powder from internal channels and subsequently confirming powder removal have also been challenging. This interest in internal channels has grown as companies look to use AM for heat exchangers. The question that this project seeks to answer is whether the improved surface finish reduces the secondary processing needed and/or if other OEM’s that produced rougher surfaces require longer secondary processing but produce parts in an overall faster timeline.
The goal of the AMC is to support and accelerate the manufacturing readiness of metal additive manufacturing technologies. Members meet quarterly to discuss advances in AM, progress on consortium projects, and future topics for collaborative research. Member companies come from all a broad range of sectors including aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, oil and gas, and consumer/commercial products. The membership base draws from industry, academia, and government, as well as equipment and manufacturing suppliers.
To learn about the AMC or find out how to become a member, contact Howie Marotto at [email protected] or 614.558.1803.
You can also hear presentations by EWI AM experts and visit us at Exhibit Booth #1000 at the RAPID+TCT event, June 25-27, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. We will be happy to answer your questions and help you solve your AM challenges.