Engineers control microstructure of metallic 3D printed parts

Ryan Dehoff, staff scientist and metal additive manufacturing lead at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility in Tennessee, presented the research this week at the Materials Science & Technology 2014 conference in Pittsburgh.

‘We can now control local material properties, which will change the future of how we engineer metallic components,’ Dehoff said in a statement. ‘This new manufacturing method takes us from reactive design to proactive design. It will help us make parts that are stronger, lighter and function better for more energy-efficient transportation and energy production applications such as cars and wind turbines.’

According to ORNL, the researchers demonstrated the method using an ARCAM electron beam melting system (EBM), in which successive layers of a metal powder are fused together by an electron beam into a three-dimensional product.

By manipulating the process to precisely manage the solidification on a microscopic scale, the researchers demonstrated three-dimensional control of the microstructure - or crystallographic texture - of a nickel-based part during formation.