A Review on Metal Additive Manufacturing: Green Sustainable Technology

Kamlesh M. Rana1, Mayank T. Patel, Nilesh M. Mahida

Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar; affiliated with Gujarat Technological University,

Ahmedabad, India

Abstract: - Over the past 20 years, additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved from 3D printers used for
rapid prototyping to sophisticated rapid manufacturing that can create parts directly without the use of
tooling.AM technology create near or net shape components layer-by-layer processing using CAD or 3D
model data. This group of technologies are capable of creating revolution in many sectors of fabrication by
reducing material waste, energy usage, component lead time and carbon foot print. Furthermore, Additive
manufacturing technologies have potentials of creating novel product design better than conventional
fabrication processes.

Keywords: - 3D printing, Additive manufacturing, Applications, Manufacturing,sintering.

1. INTRODUCTION

ASTM has defined additive manufacturing (AM) as ‘‘a process of joining materials to make objects
from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies.
Synonyms: additive fabrication, additive processes, additive techniques, additive layer manufacturing, layer
manufacturing, and freeform fabrication’’ [1]. This definition is broadly applicable to all classes of
materials including metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and biological systems. Most of the additive
manufacturing technologies use today were already known before 25 years ago.AM or Metal 3D printing
was developed during 1980 but made applicable after patent by Charles hull in 1986. [2]

The first published account of a printed solid model was made in 1981 by Hideo Kodama of Nagoya
Municipal Industrial Research Institute and since then, the technology has developed rapidly to the point
where a diversity of systems are being used to fabricate products ranging from sporting goods, jewelry and
fashion items to aerospace components, automotive tooling and medical implants. [3] The first 3D
prototype system stereo lithography process were commercially developed in year 1993. [4]

The term Additive Manufacturing is broad in the sense of technological applications, many people get
confused as the principle of AM and 3D printing are same but AM include broad categories of technologies
including 3D printing, Rapid Prototyping(RP), Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM), Layered
Manufacturing and additive fabrication.

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 The key features of metal 3D printing are environmental control p/c, Remote operation & easily
accessible, critical design, Quick production, Better quality, Allow new combination of materials, providing
new business models. [2]. It allows the direct fabrication of functional parts with complex shapes from
digital models. A schematic process chain of a typical powder bed fusion AM process for manufacturing
of orthopedic implants is shown in Figure 1. [5]

Figure 1. Process chain for powder bed fusion AM for orthopedic implants. The pre-processing before AM
includes 3D modelling, file repairing and preparation, and lastly, slicing of the 3D CAD into layers. Post-
processing may include shot peening, heat treatment and polishing of fabricated parts.

One of the key advantages of AM technologies is that they do not have the design constraints that
conventional manufacturing techniques have, allowing them to build complex geometries without
significant increase in building time. In addition, they require no tooling or molds and enable the
fabrications of several parts in the same batch, they are able to provide greater freedom of design to product
developers and significantly lower the customization cost.

Most of the development of AM was focused on Polymers, but there is demand for more offering
within metals. Innovation funding for early stage development is difficult to obtain (universities are not
able to bear the burden). Materials still lack durability and repeatability to meet the benchmark requirements
of traditional manufacturing. This is especially true with critical functional areas such as aerospace and
medical. The need to develop processes and equipment that provide superior productivity and repeatability.
These are some of common problems associated with this technology.

2. LITURATURE REVIEW

Hederick [6] published a review of AM of metals in 2011.Presented is a nice summary of the various
AM technologies and the dominate AM equipment manufacturers. AM equipment was broadly divided into

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powder bed systems, laser powder injection systems, and free form fabrication (FFF) systems. Some of the
major findings of the report include:

• Materials processed using AM experience complex thermal processing cycles. There is a need to
better understand the link between microstructure, processing, and properties for AM fabricated parts, as
well as developing an AM materials database. He reports that there has been a lot of work on Ti-6Al-4V,
but not so much on other alloys.

• There is a need reduce the variance in properties and quality from machine-to-machine across
materials and machine types. Therefore, closed-loop feedback control and sensing systems with intelligent
feed forward capability needs to be developed.

• AM can be applied to the manufacturing of parts that cannot be made with standard machining
practices. This possibility enables novel design methodologies.

NIST held a workshop in December of 2012 and recently published the results ‘‘Measurement Science
Roadmap for Metal-Based Additive Manufacturing’’ [7]. Important technology challenges were identified
in the areas (i) AM materials, (ii) AM process and equipment, (iii) AM qualification and certification, and
(iv) AM modeling and simulation. The technology development opportunities identified include:

• Robust in situ process monitoring techniques including sensors for measuring and monitoring AM
processes and products.

• A metals design allowable and performance capability database

• A shared 3rd party database

• An expert system for AM design

• Validated physics and properties-based models.

Standardization of AM processes is an important step in the advancement of metals AM and is

currently on-going. In 2009, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F42 Committee on
AM Technologies was created to guide the development of international standards in AM. ASTM F2924
Specification for AM Titanium-6 Aluminum-4 Vanadium with Powder Bed Fusion was approved in 2012.
Other important standardizations were created that ultimately assist the advancement of AM including,
ASTM F2792 standardized AM terminology (2009) and ASTM F2915 Specification for AM File Format
(2011). Standardization of the file formats to additive manufacturing file (AMF) format allows designs to
be transferred between different hardware and software systems and was developed to support full-color
multi-material geometries with microstructure and material gradients. [1]

2.1 Global Landscape in Additive Manufacturing

The overall global market for AM exceeded $1 billion in 2009 with direct revenues for systems and
materials sales of over $500 million. Ninety percent of the AM machines sold are 3D printers for making
polymer-based parts and models. [8]

Although a majority of the current global activity in AM is using polymer-based systems, there has
been a good deal of activity and interest in metallic part fabrication. Metallic part fabrication has been of

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 Figure 3 benefit of additive manufacturing Figure 2 Growth of rapid prototyping. Source.
Wohler’s report 2010 adapted from

interest due to the possibility for direct fabrication of net or near-net shape components without the need
for tooling or machining. There has been particular interest in aerospace and biomedical industries owing
to the possibility for high performance parts with reduced overall cost for manufacturing. [6]

Several large cooperative projects have been funded on the order of millions of dollars across Europe,
including the Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Parts band the Custom Fit project for mass customized
consumer and medical project manufacturing. [9] The highest rated technical need is to produce mechanical
property data suites for qualification of combinations of the many processes and materials of interest.

Figure.2 indicates the economic benefits of AM technology as the degree of complexity doesn’t
affecting the cost as compared to conventional process as degree of complexity increase the cost will
increase.

2.2 Available Technologies

There are many different technological variants but almost every existing, commercial 3D printing
machine functions in a similar way: a 3D CAD file is sliced into a series of 2D planar sections and these
are deposited by the printer, one above the other, to construct the part.

Figure 4 Three-dimensional printing processes. Adapted from [16]

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 Table 1 List of industrial additive manufacturing processes.

The Figure 4 include the classification of available AM technologies based on Physical form of
materials. The Table 1 includes the brief information regarding industrially available AM technologies.
However the new technologies which have been on development phase or emerged are not included in this
table. Though every technology having its own advantages and disadvantages the best process depend on
many factors.

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3. METHODOLOGY
The scope of this review includes AM technologies that directly form metallic parts or deposit metals.
“Indirect” processes, where a casting insert is fabricated for a mold then formed into a part, or a “green”
body where extensive post manufacturing thermal processing is required are not included. Additionally,
the focus of this review is on the “build” stage of the AM process. The two main components of any metal
AM process are the type of raw material input and the energy source used to consolidate or form the part.
In this report three main technology categories of direct metal fabrication are included:
1. Direct Energy Deposition
2. Ultrasonic AM
3. Selective Laser sintering.
3.1. Direct Energy Deposition or POM
Precision Optical Manufacturing (POM) is an Auburn Hills, MI based company that has developed a
technology called Direct Metal Deposition (DMD). DMD is well-suited for repair of existing tooling,
adding features to large parts, or for the manufacture of new parts.
Direct Energy Deposition generally use laser deposition tech. & sometimes arc/flame is also
employed. This process use combination of welding & powder metallurgy technology for additive
manufacturing. A nozzle moves in multiple direction (4-5 axis) extrudes metal powder or wire material
layer by layer. Once the material is deposited, it is melted with laser or electron beam .This process is
continues & the object is built up layer by layer. Although this process usually used to repair and maintain
existing metal material, it can be use d too create objects from scratch.
Direct energy deposition require following
resources:-
Heat source:-laser beam(600-900W),electron beam.
Shielding gas:- argon or any high ionized gas
Materials:-S.S, Al alloys, Cu alloys, super alloys,
Carbon fiber, polymer, ceramics, composites etc.. Can
be used as in the power form or extruded filament.
Software:- For modeling and G-code generation
FREECAD, CURA, Craft Ware, Sketch up, Mesh fix.
Setup for multi axial movement

Figure 5 Block Diagram of Direct energy deposition

Parameters:-
Particle size, shape & chemical composition etc...
Laser or electron beam intensity
Travel speed nozzles & beam
Deposition rate of material & dilution depth.

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 There are two different types of machines developed using this technology. The DMD 105D is
contained within an enclosure similar to the powder bed machines. The process work envelope is
approximately 12 × 12 × 12 in. This machine can be equipped with a hermetically sealed chamber. The
laser is a 1 kW fiber delivered disc laser or diode laser.
The second type is a DMD system has attached to a robotic arm with 6-axis capability and is equipped
with a 1 to 5 kW fiber coupled diode or disc laser. Two robotic systems are available: the Model 44R and
66R. The Model 44R has a payload of 60-kg and a work envelope of 1.96 × 2.14 m × 330 degrees. The
Model 66R has a payload of 125 kg and a work envelope of 3.2 × 3.67 m × 360 degrees. Robotic DMD
systems have successfully been applied to the restoration of precision components such as stub shafts,
diaphragms, trim dies and punches, and turbine blades made out of materials such as tool steels, Stellites,
Inconel, and titanium. [10]
3.2. Ultrasonic AM
Ann Arbor, MI based Solidica developed a metals AM technology called ultrasonic consolidation
(UC) in 2001 and sold a small number of “Formation” machines that leverage UC technology.UC uses
solid-state ultrasonic metal welding to bond together layers of material with integrated CNC machining
used to form net shape parts. The technology was not an immediate success due to the limited power
available. It was mainly used for lower strength aluminums and coppers, with a build volume 12 × 18 × 8
in.
Recently, EWI and Solidica have formed a collaboration that has developed a step change extension
of this technology called Very High-Power Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (VHPUAM). This
technology uses 10× more power to significantly expand the materials that can be joined including high-
strength aluminum, steels, and titanium alloys. Furthermore, it increases the build rate by an order of
magnitude to approximately 14 lb/hr for aluminum and 20 lb/hr for stainless steel. The first system built
has the ability to produce parts of size 6 × 6 × 3 ft. additionally, the weld head can rotate in roll and pitch
allowing for repair of curved surfaces.
Central to these capabilities is that UAM is a solid-state process with bonding occurring without
melting and resolidification of metals, thus avoiding the significant property degradation due to melting
and resolidification of the other metal AM technologies reviewed. This also enables the technology to bond
dissimilar metals to create metal matrix composites. A range of emerging applications are currently under
investigation including rapid prototyping, IM tooling, direct parts manufacture, tailored materials, MMC,
embedded fibers, smart materials, sensors, cladding, armor, thermal management, and cladding. [6]
3.3. Selective Laser sintering
This is a three-dimensional printing process in which a powder is sintered or fuses by the application
of a carbon dioxide laser beam. The chamber is heated to almost the melting point of the material. The laser
fused the powder at a specific location for each layer specified by the design. The particles lie loosely in a
bed, which is controlled by a piston, that is lowered the same amount of the layer thickness each time a
layer is finished. This process offers a great variety of materials that could be used: plastics, metals,
combination of metals, combinations of metals and polymers, and combinations of metals and ceramics
[11] [12] [13].
It is also possible to use composites or reinforced polymers, that is, polyamide with fiberglass. They
also could be reinforced with metals like copper. For metals, a binder is necessary. This could be a polymer

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binder, which will be later removed by heating or a mix of metals with very different melting point. [14]
Parts of alumina with high strength can be built with polyvinyl alcohol, which is an organic binder. [15]

Figure 6 selective laser sintering source; [5]

The main advantages of this technology are the wide range of materials that can be used. Unused
powder can be recycled. The disadvantages are that the accuracy is limited by the size of particles of the
material, oxidation needs to be avoided by executing the process in an inert gas atmosphere and for the
process to occur at constant temperature near the melting point. This process is also called direct metal laser
sintering.
4. DISCUSSION:-

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1. E-mail address: - ranakamlesh196@gmail.com

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