Effects of Particle Size Distribution with Efficient Packing on Powder Flowability and Selective Laser Melting Process

Zachary Young; Minglei Qu; Meelap Michael Coday; Qilin Guo; Seyed Mohammad H. Hojjatzadeh; Luis I. Escano; Kamel Fezzaa; Lianyi Chen

doi:10.3390/ma15030705

Effects of Particle Size Distribution with Efficient Packing on Powder Flowability and Selective Laser Melting Process

Zachary Young, Minglei Qu, Meelap Michael Coday, Qilin Guo, Seyed Mohammad H. Hojjatzadeh, Luis I. Escano, Kamel Fezzaa, Lianyi Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The powder bed-based additive manufacturing (AM) process contains uncertainties in the powder spreading process and powder bed quality, leading to problems in repeatability and quality of the additively manufactured parts. This work focuses on identifying the uncertainty induced by particle size distribution (PSD) on powder flowability and the laser melting process, using Ti6Al4V as a model material. The flowability test results show that the effect of PSDs on flowability is not linear, rather the PSDs near dense packing ratios cause significant reductions in flowability (indicated by the increase in the avalanche angle and break energy of the powders measured by a revolution powder analyzer). The effects of PSDs on the selective laser melting (SLM) process are identified by using in-situ high-speed X-ray imaging to observe the melt pool dynamics during the melting process. The results show that the powder beds made of powders with dense packing ratios exhibit larger build height during laser melting. The effects of PSD with efficient packing on powder flowability and selective laser melting process revealed in this work are important for understanding process uncertainties induced by feedstock powders and for designing mitigation approaches.

Original language	English
Article number	705
Journal	Materials
Volume	15
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15030705
State	Published - Feb 1 2022
Externally published	Yes

Funding

Funding: This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This work is funded by the Boeing Company through the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technology (CAMT) at Missouri University of Science and Technology, the National Science Foundation. Z.Y. is supported by the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program of the U.S. Department of Education.

Funders	Funder number
Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technology
National Science Foundation
Boeing
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Science
Argonne National Laboratory	DE-AC02-06CH11357
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Keywords

Additive manufacturing
Flowability
Particle size distribution
Powder bed fusion

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/ma15030705

Cite this

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abstract = "The powder bed-based additive manufacturing (AM) process contains uncertainties in the powder spreading process and powder bed quality, leading to problems in repeatability and quality of the additively manufactured parts. This work focuses on identifying the uncertainty induced by particle size distribution (PSD) on powder flowability and the laser melting process, using Ti6Al4V as a model material. The flowability test results show that the effect of PSDs on flowability is not linear, rather the PSDs near dense packing ratios cause significant reductions in flowability (indicated by the increase in the avalanche angle and break energy of the powders measured by a revolution powder analyzer). The effects of PSDs on the selective laser melting (SLM) process are identified by using in-situ high-speed X-ray imaging to observe the melt pool dynamics during the melting process. The results show that the powder beds made of powders with dense packing ratios exhibit larger build height during laser melting. The effects of PSD with efficient packing on powder flowability and selective laser melting process revealed in this work are important for understanding process uncertainties induced by feedstock powders and for designing mitigation approaches.",

keywords = "Additive manufacturing, Flowability, Particle size distribution, Powder bed fusion",

author = "Zachary Young and Minglei Qu and Coday, {Meelap Michael} and Qilin Guo and Hojjatzadeh, {Seyed Mohammad H.} and Escano, {Luis I.} and Kamel Fezzaa and Lianyi Chen",

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AU - Escano, Luis I.

AU - Fezzaa, Kamel

AU - Chen, Lianyi

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AB - The powder bed-based additive manufacturing (AM) process contains uncertainties in the powder spreading process and powder bed quality, leading to problems in repeatability and quality of the additively manufactured parts. This work focuses on identifying the uncertainty induced by particle size distribution (PSD) on powder flowability and the laser melting process, using Ti6Al4V as a model material. The flowability test results show that the effect of PSDs on flowability is not linear, rather the PSDs near dense packing ratios cause significant reductions in flowability (indicated by the increase in the avalanche angle and break energy of the powders measured by a revolution powder analyzer). The effects of PSDs on the selective laser melting (SLM) process are identified by using in-situ high-speed X-ray imaging to observe the melt pool dynamics during the melting process. The results show that the powder beds made of powders with dense packing ratios exhibit larger build height during laser melting. The effects of PSD with efficient packing on powder flowability and selective laser melting process revealed in this work are important for understanding process uncertainties induced by feedstock powders and for designing mitigation approaches.

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Effects of Particle Size Distribution with Efficient Packing on Powder Flowability and Selective Laser Melting Process

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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