3DP (three-dimensional printing) technologies have become more than just a tool to help companies with prototyping and designing in the pre-production stage. Some firms have already implemented 3DP technology to produce parts and end-use products. However, there are several challenges and barriers that this technology must overcome to replace traditional manufacturing methods. One of the most significant obstacles associated with 3D printing is its low level of accuracy in variable repeatability when it comes to making separate batches of the same product. There are several arguable reasons behind this variation. Some of the factors that can influence repeatability are the type of material, the design, the type of product produced, and the orientation, or the location of the build inside the building envelope. The goal of this study was to determine whether the location of the build inside the surface area of the working envelope can affect the properties (height, width, depth, and weight) of the product. Western Kentucky University (WKU) provides students with a few 3D printers on campus. One of those printers, a Stratasys (model: BST 768/SST 768), is in the Senator Mitch McConnell Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics Laboratory. The researcher used this printer for the study to determine if the location of the printer influenced the final product. The conclusion of the research did reveal that the printing location does affect the quality of the final product.

Subtractive manufacturing are the most common methods in the aerospace industry to manufacture components. In these parts the buy to fly ratio is low and it needs accurate strengths analyses to static and dynamic loads especially were the different parts relate to each other with fasteners in the assembly work. Additive manufacturing has now been developed to be of such quality that the aerospace industry see the potential to use the technology in their production of parts. It has been possible to make them lighter, stronger and reduce the total amount of parts in an assembly. This mean probably some changes to the stakeholders in the process of their product development. Engineers who are working on the products will need to face the design aspects and restrictions with AM to choose the right component/sub-assemblies to convert to AM parts. This thesis will address the possibility to redesign a wing rudder and to get some knowledge about the engineer’s point of view of AM and how it may affect them. Today there are several aerospace industries adopting AM and get airworthy components to less critical parts as brackets but also parts in the engines as the fuel nozzle in an Airbus (Trimble, 2016). For larger parts, there have also been studies to use AM for example internal galley partition but the result is it will take too long time to print by todays machines. There are several different methods for AM and Powder Bed System is popular in the aerospace industry according to its geometrical correctness to the CAD model (Dordlofva, Lindwall, & Törlind, 2016). Commercial aircrafts industry starts to get harder regulations for their emissions to get lighter planes and less air resistance. AM open up the possibilities to meet these requirements by producing parts which was impossible to produce before. The design process for AM design today are not fully known yet, which leave a lot to imagination. There are general design rules on how to design for AM build but it does not necessary mean the part will be correctly built. There are several cost driven aspects with AM, the most expensive part is the print time but there are different aspects to. For example, CNC machining may be needed after the AM build and add cost for subtractive manufacturing. Interviews with engineer’s groups have been made to conduct their thoughts and knowledge of AM and how it may affect their work. Some uncertainties were mentioned and it was most focused on the process and the reliability of the finished part. The engineers think the design process will be almost the same and only change boundary conditions. To get ideas, a workshop was made with some design guidelines for development of different designs on the wing rudder and to bring positive and negative aspects to the design. An overall cost calculation was made for a few parts and the result shows that it is hard to compete with the design of the wing rudder today. The most important aspects for a success of AM is the print speed, qualified manufacturing processes and CAD software support for the engineers. / Flygindustrin använder sig främst av subtraktiv bearbetning i sin framställning av de olika komponenterna till ett flygplan. Det blir då ofta en väldigt låg grad av materialutnyttjande, endast några procent återstår av det inköpta utgångsmaterialet. Till det tillkommer monteringsarbete och noggranna hållfasthetsanalyser, både statisk och utmatningshållfasthet av sammanbyggda skarvar där fästelement är en del. Den additiva tillverkningen har nu utvecklats och visat sig inneha kvalitéer för att klara kraven som ställs i flygindustrin. Det kan göra detaljerna lättare, starkare och minska antalet komponenter i monteringsarbetet. Det kan innebära en hel del förändringar för olika intressenter som får börja tänka annorlunda. Ingenjörer som arbetar med produktframtagning kommer att ställas inför utmaningen att applicera denna teknik på lämpliga delar/delkonstruktioner. Detta examensarbetet undersöker möjligheten att designa ett vingroder till ett flygplan och bilda en uppfattning om ingenjörernas förtroende för additiv tillverkning samt hur det kommer påverka dem. Det finns idag flera flygindustrier som har påbörjat att ta fram flygvärdiga komponenter, framförallt mindre kritiska fästelement men även en del artiklar i motorer så som bränslemunstycke hos Airbus (Trimble, 2016). De har analyserat möjligheten att använda additiv tillverkning på större artiklar såsom inre kabinstruktur men har kommit fram till att det tar för lång tid att tillverka med dagens maskiner. Det finns flertalet olika additiva tillverkningsmetoder men den som står ut är pulverbäddskrivaren då den har en bättre geometrisk korrekthet gentemot CAD modellen (Dordlofva, Lindwall, & Törlind, 2016). Nya reglementen för utsläpp i den komersiella flygindustrin pressar företagen att bygga bättre flygplan som är lättare och därmed får mindre luftmotstånd. Designprocessen för additiv tillverkning är inte given då det inte finns några givna processer som täcker hela processen. Det finns generella design-riktlinjer i vad de olika maskinerna klarar av att bygga, men samtidigt är det ingen garanti att genom att följa dessa riktlinjer skapa en fungerande design. Det finns flera olika kostnadsdrivande aspekter med additiv tillverkning. Det som mest driver kostnaden idag är den låga skrivarhastigheten. Andra kosnadsdrivare är om det tillkommer efterarbete för att uppfylla toleranser eller få en korrekt / plan sammanfogningsyta. Arbetet har utförts med intervjuer av ingenjörsgrupper för att skapa en uppfatting om deras syn på additiv tillverkning och hur det skulle ändra deras arbete. En viss osäkerhet förekom men det berodde framförallt på osäkerheten för säkring av processen, dvs tillverkningsprocessen och att kunna vara säker på att detaljen håller måttet. De ansåg att designprocessen inte skulle förändras så mycket, utan bara att randvillkoren skulle ändras. Utifrån workshops och designriktlinjer har koncept tagits fram och utvärderats med för och nackdelar. En översiktlig kostnadskalkyl har gjorts som visar på att det blir svårt att designa roder som en större enhet för additiv tillvekning som är ekonomiskt jämförbart med dagens tillverkingsmetoder. De viktigaste framgångsfaktorerna för additiv tillverkning är ökad skrivarhastighet, kvalificering av tillverkningsprocesserna och CAD stöd för ingenjörerna.

<p>Extrusion Deposition Additive Manufacturing (EDAM) is a process in which fiber-filled thermoplastic polymers are mixed and melted in an extruder and deposited onto a build plate in a layer-by-layer basis. Anisotropy caused by flow-induced orientation of discontinuous fibers along with the non-isothermal cooling process gives rise to internal stresses in printed parts which results in part deformation. The deformation and residual stresses can be abated by modifying the fiber orientation in the extrudate to best suit the print geometry. To that end, the focus of this research is on understanding the effect of fiber orientation state and fiber properties on effective properties of the printed bead and the final deformation of a part. The properties of three different orientation tensors of glass fiber-filled polyamide and carbon fiber-filled polyamide were experimentally and virtually characterized via micromechanics. A thermo-mechanical simulation framework developed in ABAQUS© was used to understand the effects of the varying fiber orientation tensor and fiber properties on the final deformation of printed parts. In particular, a medium-size geometry that is prone to high deformation was simulated and compared among the three orientation tensors and two material systems. This serves to be a good preliminary study to understand microscopic properties induced deformations in EDAM.</p>

<p>High pressure die casting is an industrial metal casting process used to manufacture goods for use in many aspects of society. Within this manufacturing process, the tooling is subjected to chemical attack from molten aluminum while also being responsible for heat removal during solidification. The purpose of this study is to develop and test materials that allow the tools to better withstand the chemical attack, and to develop design rules to guide the use of additive manufacturing for improving the heat exchange function of by way of conformal cooling.</p> <p> </p> <p>Within the material studies, a gooseneck with a niobium lining was developed to allow the successful implementation of hot chamber aluminum die casting. In addition, a manufacturing plan is described that will allow the niobium gooseneck design to be easily sourced by die casting companies. The material studies also included dunk testing of several coatings, including a plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition silicon doped diamond like carbon (PACVD Si-DLC). The Si-DLC coating performed the best in the dunk testing as compared to bare and nitrocarburized tool steel, and a number of other coating architectures.</p> <p> </p> Within the study of additively manufactured conformal cooling design, a finite difference model is developed that allows a simulated experiment that produced a number of useful equations that guide the design of die casting tooling. During the development of the models, it was discovered that little is known regarding the friction factors of additively manufactured steel pipes, so a factorial experiment was employed to empirically determine said friction factors. Charts allowing design engineers to quickly determine pressure drops and heat transfer coefficients of conformal cooling designs was produced as well.<br>

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In this study, the fatigue- and fracture properties and microstructure of a marine component of austenitic stainless steel 316L manufactured with the novel method Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing were investigated and compared with data from literature. The purpose was to find a critical flaw size in the material related to its fatigue life. It was done by studying the microstructure and interpreting fatigue- and mechanical data for the marine component in empirical models related to the fatigue- and fracture properties. Fracture properties were approximated to estimate fatigue life and critical flaw size. Fatigue limit and fatigue threshold were based on hardness test data, fracture toughness, and FADs on Charpy-V impact test data. The material manufactured with Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing had superior fatigue properties than cast and rolled equivalents and performed better in the fatigue test than recommendations for austenitic stainless steel in a seawater environment from the British Standard 7910:2019. Due to the conservative model's fatigue limit and fatigue threshold, the results are conservative. The reason for that could be the crack closure properties of the material. The results for fracture toughness are lower than the literature data. This is most likely due to conservative models based on Charpy-V impact test data. The most important properties of the fatigue life are the fatigue limit and the fatigue threshold due to their relationship with crack growth. Testing the lifetime of the component in seawater is complex and time-consuming due to the corrosion and the need for low test frequency.

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<p dir="ltr">The process of metal additive manufacturing is characterized by the layer-by-layer construction of components, where each individual layer may be subjected to distinct thermal variations, resulting in differences in cooling rates and thermal gradients. These variations can impact the microstructure and, subsequently, mechanical properties of the final product, especially as the height of the build increases. In the present investigation, an evaluation was undertaken to ascertain the impact of build height on the structural integrity of Ti-6Al-4V samples produced using the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique. The study encompassed a comprehensive examination of microstructural features, the microhardness measurement, as well as an evaluation of defect characteristics including size, location, and distribution, with respect to the build height. Tensile and fatigue tests were conducted to elucidate the potential dependence of fatigue and tensile failures on the build height. Two groups of specimens were fabricated: the first, underwent continuous fabrication, while the second involved a pause at the half height, with the process resuming after a 24-hour interval. The results of this investigation unveiled a discernible influence of the height of the build on the structural integrity of components under cyclic loading. Most fatigue specimens were observed to exhibit failure in the upper portion of the gage section with respect to the build direction. Analyses of microstructure revealed a consistent grain morphology in alignment with the build direction, and a uniform distribution of hardness throughout the build height was noted. However, for the specimens in the first group, more process-induced defects were detected within the top half of the gage section in comparison to the bottom half, while there was no noticeable difference in the distribution of defects in the second group. The results suggest that in LPBF process, as the build height is increased, there is a higher likelihood of process-induced defect formation, ultimately resulting in a reduction in structural integrity at greater build heights.</p>

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is a collection of production processes that has received a good deal of attention in recent years from different industries. Features such as mass production of customised products, design freedom, part consolidation and cost efficient low volume production drive the development of, and the interest in, these technologies. One industry that could potentially benefit from AM with metal materials is the space industry, an industry that has become a more competitive environment with established actors being challenged by new commercial initiatives. To be competitive in these new market conditions, the need for innovation and cost awareness has increased. Efficiency in product development and manufacturing is required, and AM is promising from these perspectives. However, the maturity of the AM processes is still at a level that requires cautious implementation in direct applications. Variation in manufacturing outcome and sensitivity to part geometry impact material properties and part behaviour. Since the space industry is characterised by the use of products in harsh environments with no room for failure, strict requirements govern product development, manufacturing and use of space applications. Parts have to be shown to meet specific quality control requirements, which is done through a qualification process. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate challenges with development and qualification of AM parts for space applications, and their impact on the product development process. Specifically, the challenges with powder bed fusion (PBF) processes have been in focus in this thesis. Four studies have been carried out within this research project. The first was a literature review coupled with visits to AM actors in Sweden that set the direction for the research. The second study consisted of a series of interviews at one company in the space industry to understand the expectations for AM and its implications on product development. This was coupled with a third study consisting of a workshop series with three companies in the space industry. The fourth study was an in-depth look at one company to map the qualification of manufacturing processes in the space industry, and the challenges that are seen for AM. The results from these studies show that engineers in the space industry work under conditions that are not always under their control, and which impact how they are able to be innovative and to introduce new manufacturing technologies, such as AM. The importance of product quality also tends to lead engineers into relying on previous designs meaning incremental, rather than radical, development of products is therefore typical. Furthermore, the qualification of manufacturing processes relies on previous experience which means that introducing new processes, such as AM, is difficult due to the lack of knowledge of their behaviour. Two major challenges with the qualification of critical AM parts for space applications have been identified: (i) the requirement to show that critical parts are damage tolerant which is challenging due to the lack of understanding of AM inherent defects, and (ii) the difficulty of testing parts in representative environments. This implies that the whole product development process is impacted in the development and qualification of AM parts; early, as well as later stages. To be able to utilise the design freedom that comes with AM, the capabilities of the chosen AM process has to be considered. Therefore, Design for Manufacturing (DfM) has evolved into Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM). While DfAM is important for the part design, this thesis also discusses its importance in the qualification of AM parts. In addition, the role of systems engineering in the development and qualification of AM parts for space applications is highlighted.