Project description
Metal-based additive manufacturing processes are conducted in inert atmospheres (argon, helium) to protect materials from undesired oxidation as well as to guarantee process safety. In this project, the inert process atmosphere is replaced by atmospheres such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen, that are more reactive, to absorb part of the process gases during printing. Adding reactive alloying elements, such as titanium, enables a reaction of the absorbed gases with the material to manufacture an in-situ nano-particle reinforced (Ti-oxide and -nitride) material. The dependence of the material-gas-interaction during the build job on the material composition, process parameters and melt-pool size and lifetime is investigated first. Then the microstructure and properties of the in-situ manufactured metal-matrix-composites is investigated. Thus, the mandatory atmosphere for process safety can be used to modify material properties locally in the parts during the build job.
This sub-project is part of the dtec.bw-project "High-Tech Forschungslabor für additive Fertigung” (FLAB-3Dprint). FLAB-3Dprint is a joint undertaking of researchers at UniBw M and at WIWeB with the goal to create a high-tech research lab to investigate additive manufacturing processes and materials, and to advance applications of AM.
