The influence of a large build area on the microstructure and mechanical properties of PBF-LB Ti-6Al-4 V alloy

This study investigated the print homogeneity of Ti-6Al-4 V alloy parts, when printed over a large build area of 250 × 250 × 170 mm3, using a production scale laser powder bed additive manufacturing system. The effect of part location across this large build area was investigated based on printed part porosity, microstructure, hardness, and tensile properties. In addition, a Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) treatment was carried out on the as-built parts, to evaluate its impact on the material properties. A small increase in part porosity from 0.01 to 0.09%, was observed with increasing distance from the argon gas flow inlet, which was located on one side of the build plate, during printing. This effect, which was found to be independent of height from the build plate, is likely to be associated with enhanced levels of condensate or spatter residue, being deposited at distances, further from the gas flow. Despite small differences in porosity, no significant differences were obtained for microstructural features such as prior β grain, α lath thickness, and phase fraction, over the entire build area. Due to this, mechanical performances such as hardness and tensile strengths were also found to be homogenous across the build area. Additionally, it was also observed based on the lattice constants that partial in-situ decomposition of α′→α+β phases occurred during printing. Post HIP treatment result showed a decrease of 7 and 6%, in the yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS), respectively, which was associated with a coarsening of α lath widths. The potential of the laser powder bed system for large area printing was successfully demonstrated based on the homogenous microstructure and mechanical properties of the Ti-6Al-4 V alloy parts

Solidification microstructure variations in additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V using laser powder bed fusion

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) offers unique opportunities to produce metallic components without conventional design and manufacturing constraints. During additive manufacturing process, titanium alloys like Ti-6Al-4V undergo solid-state transformation that conceals initial solidification microstructure from room-temperature observations. Revealing the as-solidified microstructure can be critical to understanding the early stages of solidification. Using orientation relationships between parent (α) and child (β) phases, the as-solidified microstructures across the LPBF build volume has been reconstructed. Based on the as-solidified parent phase information, variations of the thermal and solidification conditions that occur during the LPBF of Ti-6Al-4V are revealed. The results show that how high cooling rates in the initially solidified lower layers contributed to orientation distribution during parent phase solidification, compared to upper layers in the build volume. Furthermore, the approach demonstrates the potential to further explore solidification microstructure and defect formation in titanium alloys during additive manufacturing

Development of high fidelity imaging procedures to identify the relationship between the material microstructure and mechanical behaviour of friction stir welds

A procedure to evaluate the local post-yielding behaviour of similar and dissimilar weld combinations of copper (Cu) and stainless steel (SS) materials produced by the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process is devised. Friction stir weld sub-regions such as the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), Thermo-Mechanical Affected Zone (TMAZ), and Stir Zone (SZ)/weld nugget located on the advancing (AS) and retreating sides (RS) of the weld are characterised using a range of microscopy techniques. The microstructural characterisation is linked to the local stress-strain behaviour through the development of a novel High Resolution (HR) Digital Image Correlation (DIC) methodology. The overarching aim is to provide a holistic understanding of the weld mechanical behaviour linked directly to the material microstructure and composition generated by the FSW process. During FSW a thickness reduction occurs local to the weld zone as a result of the plastic deformation that is produced during the FSW process, hence a procedure is developed that accounts for the reduction in test specimen thickness and removes the need for post-weld machining to produce a specimen of uniform thickness. A high-resolution (HR) 2D-digital image correlation (DIC) methodology is developed to assess the local strain response across the weld surfaces and the crosssection in both elastic and plastic loading regimes. The HR-DIC methodology includes the stitching of multiple images, as it is only possible to partially cover the FSW region using a single camera with the high-resolution optical set-up. An image processing procedure is developed to stitch the strain maps as well as strain data sets that allows the full-field strain to be visualised and interrogated over the entire FSW region in the materials’ elastic range. As the loading was in the material elastic range it meant the load step necessary for the DIC could be applied repeatedly so that images could be gathered from different positions across the weld region from the same specimen. An alternative to the stereo-DIC method has been devised, which is particularly applicable where high magnification and small stand-off distances are used. The parasitic effect of the out-of-plane displacements evolved from the reduced thickness of the weld was eliminated using a correction procedure as well as the geometry of the weld nugget. The procedure is initially validated in the materials’ elastic loading range in FSW similar weld combinations by showing that the elastic modulus could be obtained accurately in the weld nugget region if the geometry of the weld nugget is known. This provides the important first step in enabling accurate HR-DIC strain measurements on dissimilar FSW welds in the elastic loading range. The microscopy results showed that the microstructure was not homogeneous through the thickness of the FSW region, hence the yielding would occur in a non-uniform fashion. Therefore, it was not possible to apply the methodology devised to account for the deformation resulting from thickness reduction post-yield. Instead, it was assumed that a welded material would yield homogenously in the through-thickness plane (i.e., across the width of the weld). Therefore, the 2D-DIC experimental methodology was applied to the weld cross-section so that the local strain gradients across the weld sub-regions were observed. Likewise, it was not possible to repeatedly load the specimen and collect several images across the weld. So instead of the image stitching, the procedure was modified so that the entire through-thickness view of the FSW region was captured by a sequence of single images during the plastic deformation. HR-DIC strain maps obtained during plastic deformation of the FSW weld cross-section are correlated with micrographs and microhardness measurements, and the local yielding characteristics of the different weld sub-regions are extracted. Finally, X-ray CT characterisation is used to study the influence of FSW tool wear on the local material response and also to trace the complex solid-state material flow across the FSW welds. In both similar and dissimilar FSW welds, materials characterisation results achieved from microscopy, HR-DIC, and X-ray CT techniques are spatially correlated to establish the microstructure-mechanical property relationships from the heterogeneous FSW weld sub-regions

Directed Evolution of an Efficient and Thermostable PET Depolymerase

The recent discovery of a hydrolytic enzyme, IsPETase, that can deconstruct poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET), has sparked great interest in biocatalytic approaches to recycle plastics. Realisation of commercial utility will require the development of robust engineered enzymes that meet the demands of industrial processes. Although rationally engineered variants of PETases have been reported, enzymes that have been experimentally optimised through iterative rounds of directed evolution - the go-to method for engineering industrially useful biocatalysts – have not yet been described. Here, we report the development and implementation of an automated, high-throughput directed evolution platform for engineering polymer degrading enzymes. Evaluation of >13,000 IsPETase variants, applying catalytic activity at elevated temperatures as a primary selection pressure, afforded a HotPETase variant with 21 mutations that has a melting temperature of 82.5C and can therefore operate near or above the glass transition temperature of PET (60-70C). HotPETase can depolymerise semi-crystalline PET more rapidly than previously reported PETases and can selectively deconstruct the PET component of a laminated packaging multi-material. Structural characterisation of HotPETase reveals several interesting features that have emerged during evolution to improve thermotolerance and catalytic performance. Our study establishes laboratory evolution as a platform to engineer useful plastic degrading enzymes to underpin biocatalytic plastic recycling processes