IMX Talks - Design and optimization of alloys for additive manufacturing

In the last couple of years, metal additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged from a mere prototyping technology to a real manufacturing technology with applications in many industry sectors (e.g. aerospace, biomedical engineering, power generation). The layer-by-layer consolidation during laser powder bed fusion or laser direct metal deposition results in unique time-temperature profiles in the materials, which can lead to out-of-equilibrium microstructures, meta-stable phases, micro-segregation and cracking. Up until now, only a small number of conventional alloys is currently used for AM. Many traditional wrought and cast alloys were not optimized for processing via AM and they might have to be optimized to make them printable. On the other hand, the special processing conditions during AM with the very rapid heating and cooling cycles and the short consolidation times can allow for the fabrication of alloys and composites that are otherwise difficult or impossible to fabricate.
In this presentation, I will talk about the material challenges in metal AM and our activities with regard to the design and optimization of structural alloys for laser-based AM technologies. In addition, I will talk about our approaches to use AM for fabricating parts with locally tailored microstructures and novel functionalities.