Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    Integrated weld preparation designs for the joining of L-PBF and conventional components via TIG welding
    ( 2022-04-18)
    Geisen, Ole
    ;
    Müller, Vinzenz
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of entire assemblies is not typically practical for technical and economic reasons. The build size limitations and high production costs of L-PBF make it competitive for smaller, highly complex components, while the less complex elements of an assembly are manufactured conventionally. This leads to scenarios that use L-PBF only where it's beneficial, and it require an integration and joining to form the final product. For example, L-PBF combustion swirlers are welded onto cast parts to produce combustion systems for stationary gas turbines. Today, the welding process requires complex welding fixtures and tack welds to ensure the correct alignment and positioning of the parts for repeatable weld results. In this paper, L-PBF and milled weld preparations are presented as a way to simplify the Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding of rotationally symmetrical geometries using integrated features for alignment and fixation. Pipe specimens with the proposed designs are manufactured in Inconel 625 using L-PBF and milling. The pipe assembly is tested and TIG welding is performed for validation. 3D scans of the pipes before and after welding are evaluated, and the weld quality is examined via metallography and computed tomography (CT) scans. All welds produced in this study passed the highest evaluation group B according to DIN 5817. Thanks to good component alignment, safe handling, and a stable welding process, the developed designs eliminate the need for part-specific fixtures, simplify the process chain, and increase the process reliability. The results are applicable to a wide range of components with similar requirements.
  • Publication
    Characterization of Ti-6Al-4V Fabricated by Multilayer Laser Powder-Based Directed Energy Deposition
    ( 2022)
    Ávila Calderón, Luis Alexander
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rehmer, Birgit
    ;
    Petrat, Torsten
    ;
    Skrotzki, Birgit
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Laser powder-based directed energy deposition (DED-L) is increasingly being used in additive manufacturing (AM). As AM technology, DED-L must consider specific challenges. It must achieve uniform volume growth over hundreds of layers and avoid heat buildup of the deposited material. Herein, Ti-6Al-4V is fabricated using an approach that addresses these challenges and is relevant in terms of transferability to DED-L applications in AM. The assessment of the obtained properties and the discussion of their relationship to the process conditions and resulting microstructure are presented. The quality of the manufacturing process is proven in terms of the reproducibility of properties between individual blanks and with respect to the building height. The characterization demonstrates that excellent mechanical properties are achieved at room temperature and at 400 C.
  • Publication
    Microstructure of Inconel 718 parts with constant mass energy input manufactured with direct energy deposition
    ( 2019)
    Petrat, Torsten
    ;
    Brunner-Schwer, Christian
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    The laser-based direct energy deposition (DED) as a technology for additive manufacturing allows the production of near net shape components. Industrial applications require a stable process to ensure reproducible quality. Instabilities in the manufacturing process can lead to faulty components which do not meet the required properties. The DED process is adjusted by various parameters such as laser power, velocity, powder mass flow and spot diameter, which interact with each other. A frequently used comparative parameter in welding is the energy per unit length and is calculated from the laser power and the velocity in laser welding. The powder per unit length comparative parameter in the DED process has also be considered, because this filler material absorbs energy in addition to the base material. This paper deals with the influence of mass energy as a comparative parameter for determining the properties of additively manufactured parts. The same energy per unit length of 60 J/mm as well as the same powder per unit length of 7.2 mg/mm can be adjusted with different parameter sets. The energy per unit length and the powder per unit length determine the mass energy. The laser power is varied within the experiments between 400 W and 900 W. Energy per unit length and powder per unit length are kept constant by adjusting velocity and powder mass flow. Using the example of Inconel 718, experiments are carried out with the determined parameter sets. In a first step, individual tracks are produced and analyzed by means of micro section. The geometry of the tracks shows differences in height and width. In addition, the increasing laser power leads to a higher dilution of the base material. To determine the suitability of the parameters for additive manufacturing use, the individual tracks are used to build up parts with a square base area of 20×20 mm². An investigation by Archimedean principle shows a higher porosity with lower laser power. By further analysis of the micro sections, at low laser power, connection errors occur between the tracks. The results show that laser power, velocity and powder mass flow must be considered in particular, because a constant mass energy can lead to different geometric as well as microscopic properties.
  • Publication
    Highspeed-plasma-laser-cladding of thin wear resistance coatings: A process approach as a hybrid metal deposition-technology
    ( 2019)
    Brunner-Schwer, Christian
    ;
    Petrat, Torsten
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Plasma-Transferred-Arc (PTA) welding is a process that enables high deposition rates, but also causes increased thermal load on the component. Laser metal deposition (LMD) welding, on the other hand, reaches a high level of precision and thus achieves comparatively low deposition rates, which can lead to high processing costs. Combining laser and arc energy aims to exploit the respective advantages of both technologies. In this study, a novel approach of this process combination is presented using a PTA system and a 2 kW disk laser. The energy sources are combined in a common process zone as a high-speed plasma laser cladding technology (HPLC), which achieves process speeds of 10 m/min at deposition rates of 6.6 kg/h and an energy per unit length of 39 J/mm.
  • Publication
    Finite element analysis of in-situ distortion and bulging for an arbitrarily curved additive manufacturing directed energy deposition geometry
    ( 2018)
    Biegler, Max
    ;
    Marko, Angelina
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    With the recent rise in the demand for additive manufacturing (AM), the need for reliable simulation tools to support experimental efforts grows steadily. Computational welding mechanics approaches can simulate the AM processes but are generally not validated for AM-specific effects originating from multiple heating and cooling cycles. To increase confidence in the outcomes and to use numerical simulation reliably, the result quality needs to be validated against experiments for in-situ and post process cases. In this article, a validation is demonstrated for a structural thermomechanical simulation model on an arbitrarily curved Directed Energy Deposition (DED) part: at first, the validity of the heat input is ensured and subsequently, the model's predictive quality for in-situ deformation and the bulging behaviour is investigated. For the in-situ deformations, 3D-Digital Image Correlation measurements are conducted that quantify periodic expansion and shrinkage as they occur. The results show a strong dependency of the local stiffness of the surrounding geometry. The numerical simulation model is set up in accordance with the experiment and can reproduce the measured 3 dimensional in-situ displacements. Furthermore, the deformations due to removal from the substrate are quantified via 3D scanning, exhibiting considerable distortions due to stress relaxation. Finally, the prediction of the deformed shape is discussed in regards to bulging simulation: to improve the accuracy of the calculated final shape, a novel extension of the model relying on the modified stiffness of inactive upper layers is proposed and the experimentally observed bulging could be reproduced in the finite element model.
  • Publication
    Build-up strategies for additive manufacturing of three dimensional Ti-6Al-4V-parts produced by laser metal deposition
    ( 2018)
    Spranger, Felix
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Schuch, Michael
    ;
    Hilgenberg, Kai
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Laser metal deposition (LMD) has been applied as a coating technology for many years. Today, the technologies capacity to produce 3D depositions leads to a new field of application as additive manufacturing method. In this paper, 3D laser metal deposition of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4 V is studied with special regard to the demands of additive manufacturing. Therefore, only the coaxial LMD powder nozzle is used to create the shielding gas atmosphere, which ensures high geometric flexibility. Furthermore, specimen with high aspect ratio and hundreds of layers are manufactured, which represent typical features in additive manufacturing. The presented study contains the following steps: First, cylindrical specimens are manufactured with a standard shell-core build-up strategy and mechanical properties as well as fracture mechanisms are determined. Based on the results, experiments are conducted to improve the build-up strategy and new tensile test specimens are built with the improved strategy. The improved strategy incorporates variable track overlap ratios to achieve a constant growth in the shell and core area. As blanks, lean cylinders comprising more than 240 layers and a height of more than 120 mm are manufactured. The specimens are analyzed by X-ray inspection for material defects. Fractured surfaces are observed via scanning electron microscopy and the composition of the surfaces is determined using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The tensile test results prove mechanical properties close to ASTM F1108 specification for wrought material.
  • Publication
    In-situ distortions in LMD additive manufacturing walls can be measured with digital image correlation and predicted using numerical simulations
    ( 2018)
    Biegler, Max
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Distortions in Additive Manufacturing (AM) Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) occur in the newly-built component due to rapid heating and solidification and can lead to shape deviations and cracking. This paper presents a novel approach to quantify the distortions experimentally and to use the results in numerical simulation validation. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is applied together with optical filters to measure in-situ distortions directly on a wall geometry produced with LMD. The wall shows cyclic expansion and shrinking with the edges bending inward and the top of the sample exhibiting a slight u-shape as residual distortions. Subsequently, a structural Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the experiment is established, calibrated against experimental temperature profiles and used to predict the in-situ distortions of the sample. A comparison of the experimental and numerical results reveals a good agreement in length direction of the sample and quantitative deviations in height direction, which are attributed to the material model used. The suitability of the novel experimental approach for measurements on an AM sample is shown and the potential for the validated numerical model as a predictive tool to reduce trial-and-error and improve part quality is evaluated.
  • Publication
    3D laser metal deposition: Process steps for additive manufacturing
    ( 2018)
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Marko, Angelina
    ;
    Petrat, Torsten
    ;
    Gumenyuk, Andrey
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    Laser metal deposition (LMD) is an established technology for two-dimensional surface coatings. It offers high deposition rates, high material flexibility, and the possibility to deposit material on existing components. Due to these features, LMD has been increasingly applied for additive manufacturing of 3D structures in recent years. Compared to previous coating applications, additive manufacturing of 3D structures leads to new challenges regarding LMD process knowledge. In this paper, the process steps for LMD as additive manufacturing technology are described. The experiments are conducted using titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718. Only the LMD nozzle is used to create a shielding gas atmosphere. This ensures the high geometric flexibility needed for additive manufacturing, although issues with the restricted size and quality of the shielding gas atmosphere arise. In the first step, the influence of process parameters on the geometric dimensions of single weld beads is analyzed based on design of experiments. In the second step, a 3D build-up strategy for cylindrical specimen with high dimensional accuracy is described. Process parameters, travel paths, and cooling periods between layers are adjusted. Tensile tests show that mechanical properties in the as-deposited condition are close to wrought material. As practical example, the fir-tree root profile of a turbine blade is manufactured. The feasibility of LMD as additive technology is evaluated based on this component.
  • Publication
    Embedding electronics into additive manufactured components using laser metal deposition and selective laser melting
    ( 2018)
    Petrat, Torsten
    ;
    Kersting, Robert
    ;
    Graf, Benjamin
    ;
    Rethmeier, Michael
    The paper deals with the integration of a light emitting diode (LED) into an additive manufactured metal component. Selective laser melting (SLM) and laser metal deposition (LMD) are used. The material used is the chrome-nickel steel 316L. The basic component is manufactured by means of SLM and consists of a solid body and an area with grid structure. The solid body includes a duct in the shape of a groove with a recess for the positioning of the power cable. The LED is embedded in the grid structure via an inlet from the solid body. In further processing, the groove is filled with LMD. Two strategies with different parameter combinations were investigated. It shows that a high energy input near the power cable leads to its destruction. By using multiple parameter combinations during the manufacturing process, this destruction can be prevented. There was a comparison of both strategies with regard to the necessary number of tracks and duration of welding time.