Study of selective laser melting (SLM) process for the production of nickel based superalloys from pre to post production.

Lead Research Organisation: Swansea University
Department Name: College of Engineering

Abstract

The reseach investigates the selective laser melting (SLM) of nickel based superalloys (IN625 and IN718) to establish the effect of raw material, processing parameters and post processing heat treatment on the resulting material. This work involves extensive powder characterisation, a design of experiments approach to process parameter investigation and in depth microstructural and mechanical characterisation of SLM'ed material both in as manufactured and heat treated conditions. Research area - Materials Engineering, metals and alloys

Publications

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Studentship Projects

Project Reference Relationship Related To Start End Student Name
EP/N509553/1 01/10/2016 30/06/2022
1814833 Studentship EP/N509553/1 01/10/2016 31/03/2020 Christopher Pleass
 
Description Investigating heat treatment of IN718 manufactured by SLM to recover lost mechanical properties. A viable heat treatment route has been identified which has been show to be able to improve the aged mechanical properties of the material over material without this heat treatment applied.

During some applied heat treatments a coarsenign of the grain structure has been observed. This process has been investigated and a mechanism to explain its occurance has been propsed.
Exploitation Route The woerk to develop a heat treatment route to address the loss of mechancila properties in SLM can be further investigated to study the effects on the high temperature stress rupture and notch sensitivity of the material. Since IN718 is a material used primarily in high temperature applications insife aerospace engines this is a logical next step.
Sectors Aerospace, Defence and Marine
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860418303518