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At least 415 records · Page 23

Additive Manufacturing: Ensuring Quality for Spacecraft Applications

Reliable manufacturing requires that material properties and fabrication processes be well defined in order to insure that the manufactured parts meet specified requirements. While this issue is now relatively straightforward for traditional processes such as subtractive manufacturing and injection molding, this capability is still evolving for AM products. Hence, one of the principal challenges within AM is in qualifying and verifying source material properties and process control. This issue is particularly critical for applications in harsh environments and demanding applications, such as spacecraft.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Additive Manufacturing of Thermal Protection Systems (AMTPS)

Heat shield manufacturing has changed little in the last 60 years. State of the art designs utilize tiled, or block, configurations fabricated in segments and individually bonded to the vehicle structure. Gaps between blocks are then filled. These processes are hands on, labor intensive, and involve long lead times.

Thermal protection systems↗

Convolutional Autoencoder for Defect Detection in Additive Manufacturing

The core idea behind using machine learning (ML) for defect detection is that it can be used to detect flaws as they are being formed in an AM part. As the part is being made, a near-infrared (NIR) sensor records each layer and creates an image of the entire build layer. These images, usually thousands, can be compiled into a ‘3D’ array of the entire part. ML tools, such as a convolutional autoencoder (CAE) can go through these images and highlight potential anomalous regions of your part.

In-Situ Monitoring↗

Thermocouple Temperature Measurements in Selective Laser Melting Additive Manufacturing

The extreme thermal history resulting from selective laser melting leads to microstructural characteristics and residual stresses that have considerable impact on the mechanical behavior of the printed part. Accurate measurements of the temperature combined with thermal models are needed to better understand and control the thermal history to optimize mechanical properties. In order to calibrate and validate models, experimental temperature data must be accurately measured in a rapid fashion due to the high speeds of the laser. In this work, a novel method to read data from thermocouples is created with enhanced circuitry that achieves a sampling rate of 10 kHz. This data acquisition rate allows for high precision sampling of SLM heating and cooling cycles.

additive manufacturing↗

Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Additively Manufactured Haynes 282: A Comparative Analysis between L-PBF and LP-DED Technologies

This study compares the microstructure and tensile properties of Haynes 282 fabricated using laser powder bed fusion and laser powder directed energy deposition. Both sets underwent stress-relieving, followed by hot isostatic pressing, and the standard double aging heat treatment. Tensile testing was conducted at room temperature on specimens fabricated with both technologies to evaluate and compare their tensile behaviors. Results show that the ultimate tensile and yield strengths of laser powder bed fused specimens were 18% and 57% higher, respectively than those of laser powder directed energy deposited ones, whereas the elongation to failure was similar in both. The difference in strengths is attributed to the differences in the size of ɣ' precipitates and grains, i.e., those in the LP-DED specimens being larger, whereas similar elongation to failure is attributed to the carbide debonding dominating the fracture mechanism in both batches.

Additive manufacturing↗

Microstructural Characterization of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Additively Manufactured Inconel 718 for Aerospace Application

Alloy 718 (Inconel 718) is used for aerospace applications because of its excellent corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. This alloy is particularly applicable in manufacturing components subjected to high temperatures in rocket engines, aero-engines, and gas turbines. Properties for this alloy when processing on systems from similar and different Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) machines provide subtle differences due to process parameters, feedstock, and machine configurations. A series of sixteen L-PBF AM Inconel 718 geometric feature build plates have been evaluated for microstructure using optical microscopy. This study presents the details of the microstructure analysis concerning geometry and different machine platforms. Microstructural investigations of these samples included average grain width measurement for all the X-Y and Y-Z build layers and are accompanied by process parameters and powder characterization. The present work concludes with a discussion on the importance of captured differences among builds to understand the practical limitations among AM platforms.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Enabling Small-Batch Custom Alloy Feedstock Development for Additive Manufacturing

Propulsion, hypersonic, and space nuclear power applications require high strength/high temperature components produced by AM but rely on expensive, supply-chain limited, non-AM optimized metals that lead to high buy-to-fly ratios. In addition, custom alloy development for AM is extremely expensive given the high-cost associated with feedstock development.​ Here, we highlight current efforts to develop a cost-effective process to enable application driven high-throughput AM-optimized metal alloy development using small powder batch processing. A cost-effective process for custom AM-feedstock development will enable fast industry infusion to aid future NASA missions and will enable commercial space partners and supply chain.

Fernando L Reyes Tirado↗

Hot Isostatic Pressing for Reduction of Defects in Additively Manufactured Inconel-718 Preliminary Simulation Approach and Results

Selective laser melting (SLM) of Inconel-718 (IN718) is a promising advanced manufacturing technology; however, challenges exist for fracture-critical parts where pores induced during the manufacturing process reduce fatigue life of the material. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is a common post processing technique used to reduce the part porosity by exposing parts to high temperature and pressures. Pore closure depends on the pore shape, trapped gas, and HIP parameters, and the process can only be optimized by understanding the effect of these variables. An analysis capability is described to better understand the conditions necessary for pore closure, and the effect of several variables on porosity are explored and compared to a baseline case. The importance of valid material response models is identified as a significant factor in model accuracy; especially the creep material response model which, in the baseline case, predicts that creep strain accounts for 87.7% of the total strain at the conclusion of the HIP cycle. Lessons learned are described, in addition to future work including model validation.

Joshua M Fody↗

Effect of Material Porosity on Residual Stress in an Additive Manufacturing Simulation using the Generalized Method of Cells

The effect of material porosity on final part distortion and residual stresses in a selective laser sintering manufacturing simulation is presented here. A time-dependent thermo-mechanical model is used with the open-source FEA software CalculiX. Effective homogenized material properties for Inconel 625 are precomputed using NASA’s Micromechanics Analysis Code with the Generalized Method of Cells. The evolving porosity of the material is estimated with each pass of the laser beam during simulation runtime. A comparison with a homogenous model and the evolving model shows that the model with evolving porosity predicts larger distortions with greater residual stresses.

Additive Manufactuirng↗

Additive Manufacturing Thermal Performance Testing of Single Channel GRCop-84 SLM Components

The surface finish found on components manufactured by sinter laser manufacturing (SLM) is rougher (0.013 - 0.0006 inches) than parts made using traditional fabrication methods. Internal features and passages built into SLM components do not readily allow for roughness reduction processes. Alternatively, engineering literature suggests that the roughness of a surface can enhance thermal performance within a pressure drop regime. To further investigate the thermal performance of SLM fabricated pieces, several GRCop-84 SLM single channel components were tested using a thermal conduction rig at MSFC. A 20 kW power source running at 25% duty cycle and 25% power level applied heat to each component while varying water flow rates between 2.1 - 6.2 gallons/min (GPM) at a supply pressure of 550 to 700 psi. Each test was allowed to reach quasi-steady state conditions where pressure, temperature, and thermal imaging data were recorded. Presented in this work are the heat transfer responses compared to a traditional machined OHFC Copper test section. An analytical thermal model was constructed to anchor theoretical models with the empirical data.

Garcia, Chance P.↗