Metal additive manufacturing process porosity reduced by pulsed laser
In this interesting work published in the Journal of Materials Science & Technology, researchers investigated the porosity in metal additive manufacturing, specifically the directed energy deposition process of Ti6Al4V. The researchers incorporated a second pulsed laser to the process to change the meltpool conditions, leading to porosity reduction up to 90%. The quantification was done using X-ray microtomography using Dragonfly software.
According to researcher Peipei Liu: “Dragonfly is very useful for us to clearly observe pore morphology and distribution as well as to accurately quantify porosity in additively manufactured samples. With the help of Dragonfly, it was very convenient for us to validate our porosity reduction method during the metal directed energy deposition process using an additional pulse laser.”
Video Presentation
Publication
Sohn, H., Liu, P., Yoon, H., Yi, K., Yang, L. and Kim, S., 2022. Real-time porosity reduction during metal directed energy deposition using a pulse laser. Journal of Materials Science & Technology, 116, pp.214-223 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmst.2021.12.013).
Keywords: Additive Manufacturing, Porosity, X-Ray Tomography, Microtomography, Pore Morphology, Pore Distribution, 3D Print Metal, Quality Improvement
Images
Figure 1: Pore maximum diameter in cropped 3D view.
Figure 2: Pore maximum diameter in transparent 3D view.
Figure 3: Pore sphericity color coded in transparent 3D view.
Figure 4: Porosity color coded by volume in 3D view from top.
Figure 5: Porosity color coded by volume in 3D view from side.