Abstract:

Additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) of materials is considered as a disruptive technology to produce limited number of high value components with topologically optimized geometries and functionalities. Realization of the above potential for real-world applications is stifled by lack of qualification tools across the whole process flow. The qualification steps include computational design-tools; material characteristics, methods to probe thermo-mechanical processes under in-situ conditions, and microstructural homogeneity, as well as, anisotropic static- and dynamic-properties. This presentation will discuss the needed interdisciplinary science and technology to address these challenges. Specific focus on understanding and controlling physical processes will be stressed, including powder/wire/tape, powder sintering, adsorption and dissolution of gases, microstructure evolution under extreme thermal gradients, and residual stress evolution under complex thermal gyrations. Two case studies will be discussed that demonstrates the need for the interdisciplinary expertise to accelerate the adopting additive manufacturing. Emerging pathways to scale up metal additive manufacturing to large sizes (>1 m) and higher productivity (5 to 20 kg/h), while maintaining the mechanical performance and geometrical flexibility will be discussed.