The Influence of Porosity on Fatigue Crack Initiation in Additively Manufactured Titanium Components

Without post-manufacture HIPing the fatigue life of electron beam melting (EBM) additively manufactured parts is currently dominated by the presence of porosity, exhibiting large amounts of scatter. Here we have shown that the size and location of these defects is crucial in determining the fatigue life of EBM Ti-6Al-4V samples. X-ray computed tomography has been used to characterise all the pores in fatigue samples prior to testing and to follow the initiation and growth of fatigue cracks. This shows that the initiation stage comprises a large fraction of life (>70 %). In these samples the initiating defect was often some way from being the largest (merely within the top 35 % of large defects). Using various ranking strategies including a range of parameters, we found that when the proximity to the surface and the pore aspect ratio were included the actual initiating defect was within the top 3 % of defects ranked most harmful. This lays the basis for considering how the deposition parameters can be optimised to ensure that the distribution of pores is tailored to the distribution of applied stresses in additively manufactured parts to maximise the fatigue life for a given loading cycle

Dimensional accuracy of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) additive manufacture with regard to weight optimized truss structures

The Electron Beam (EBM) additive manufacturing process is well suited to fabricating complex structural designs in Ti–6Al–4V because of the design freedoms it offers combined with strong and consistent material properties. However it has been observed that complications may arise when manufacturing truss-like structures (such as those produced via structural topology optimization) in the form of undersized features on the finished part. The issue appears to affect truss members that are not aligned with the vertical build direction, with an apparent lack of material on the negative surfaces. This effect appears to worsen with a greater angle between the truss member and the build direction, even with the use of support structures. This investigation has characterized and measured the dimensional errors that result from this issue through 3D scanning techniques. Process modifications have then been made which result in significant improvements in dimensional accuracy. This investigation highlights the importance of heat management at features with negative surfaces to yield parts that are dimensionally accurate without introducing excessive internal melt defects in the form of voids and porosity

Characteristics, Challenges, and Opportunities of Vaccine Cold Chain

Purpose: Main attention regarding vaccine supply chain has been drawn on strategic decision level with a limited concentration on tactical and operational levels. Temperature maintenance along the vaccine supply chain remains to be one of the challenging logistical problems. The purpose of this paper is to understand the characteristics, challenges and opportunities of the vaccine cold chain today and how emerging technologies (e.g. vaccine vial monitoring, thermostable vaccines and new packaging systems) affect its development and implementations that can be done before the availability of new technologies. Design/methodology/approach: Literature review is done on the topic of vaccine cold chain, with the key search word of vaccine cold chain. Supporting resources include the official websites of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers. Findings: The gap between the existing literature and the potential requirements; Trend to future research on vaccine cold chain. Research limitations/implications: Contents about strategic decision level of vaccine supply chain are excluded. Practical implications: Pending for empirical studies; Does not consider cost-effectiveness and environmental impacts on the vaccine supply chain. Originality/value: The number of vaccines has expanded in the past years due to improved immunization programs across the world, and the vaccines for the Covid-19 pandemic have the nature of high demand and pressuring time requirement, posing a need for improvement on the existing cold chain. Many existing pieces of literature on this topic are case-specific or scenario-based, and more general operation management insights are important as well, which can be beneficial to the decision-makers in the vaccine supply chain

A data-driven approach for predicting printability in metal additive manufacturing processes

Metal powder-bed fusion additive manufacturing technologies offer numerous benefits to the manufacturing industry. However, the current approach to printability analysis, determining which components are likely to build unsuccessfully, prior to manufacture, is based on ad-hoc rules and engineering experience. Consequently, to allow full exploitation of the benefits of additive manufacturing, there is a demand for a fully systematic approach to the problem. In this paper we focus on the impact of geometry in printability analysis. For the first time, we detail a machine learning framework for determining the geometric limits of printability in additive manufacturing processes. This framework consists of three main components. First, we detail how to construct strenuous test artefacts capable of pushing an additive manufacturing process to its limits. Secondly, we explain how to measure the printability of an additively manufactured test artefact. Finally, we construct a predictive model capable of estimating the printability of a given artefact before it is additively manufactured. We test all steps of our framework, and show that our predictive model approaches an estimate of the maximum performance obtainable due to inherent stochasticity in the underlying additive manufacturing process. © 2020, The Author(s)

X-ray Tomography Characterisation of Lattice Structures Processed by Selective Electron Beam Melting

Metallic lattice structures intentionally contain open porosity; however, they can also contain unwanted closed porosity within the structural members. The entrained porosity and defects within three different geometries of Ti-6Al-4V lattices, fabricated by Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM), is assessed from X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans. The results suggest that horizontal struts that are built upon loose powder show particularly high (~20 × 10−3 vol %) levels of pores, as do nodes at which many (in our case 24) struts meet. On the other hand, for struts more closely aligned (0° to 54°) to the build direction, the fraction of porosity appears to be much lower (~0.17 × 10−3%) arising mainly from pores contained within the original atomised powder particles

Methods for Rapid Pore Classification in Metal Additive Manufacturing

The additive manufacturing of metals requires optimisation to find the melting conditions that give the desired material properties. A key aspect of the optimisation is minimising the porosity that forms during the melting process. A corresponding analysis of pores of different types (e.g. lack of fusion or keyholes) is therefore desirable. Knowing that pores form under different thermal conditions allows greater insight into the optimisation process. In this work, two pore classification methods were trialled: unsupervised machine learning and defined limits. These methods were applied to 3D pore data from X-ray computed tomography and 2D pore data from micrographs. Data were collected from multiple alloys (Ti-6Al-4V, Inconel 718, Ti-5553 and Haynes 282). Machine learning was found to be the most useful for 3D pore data and defined limits for the 2D pore data; the latter worked by optimising the limits using energy densities

Using laser ultrasound to detect sub-surface defects in metal laser powder bed fusion components

Laser powder bed fusion offers many advantages over conventional manufacturing methods, such as the integration of multiple parts which can result in significant weight-savings. The increased design freedom that layer-wise manufacture allows has also been seen to enhance component performance at little or no added cost. However, for such benefits to be realised, the material quality must first be assured. Laser ultrasonic testing is a non-contact inspection technique which has been proposed as suitable for in-situ monitoring of metal additive manufacturing processes. This paper explores the current capability of this technique to detect manufactured, sub-surface defects in Ti-6Al-4V samples, ex-situ. The results are compared with x-ray computed tomography reconstructions and focus variation microscopy. Whilst laser ultrasound has been used to identify material discontinuities, further work is required before this technique could be implemented in-situ