Accelerating process development for 3D printing of new metal alloys

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Additive Manufacturing
• Computational Imaging

Background:

• Variability in 3D printed metal quality hinders widespread adoption.
• Current process mapping relies on conventional, ex situ methods or limited in situ techniques.
• Existing in situ methods face challenges with observable features and high-cost temperature measurement setups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel in situ method for process mapping in laser-based metal additive manufacturing.
• To overcome limitations of existing in situ approaches by incorporating temporal dynamics of molten metal.
• To enable efficient defect and variability quantification for improved 3D printing quality.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-speed imaging to capture laser-metal interactions.
• Employed video vision transformers to analyze temporal features of molten metal dynamics.
• Developed an in situ process mapping technique adaptable to commercial 3D printing machines.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated in situ process maps by analyzing molten metal dynamics.
• Demonstrated efficient quantification of defects and variability.
• Validated the approach's generalizability through cross-dataset evaluations on diverse alloys.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method enhances in situ process mapping for 3D printed metals.
• This approach offers a cost-effective and adaptable solution for quality control in additive manufacturing.
• The findings pave the way for more consistent and reliable metal 3D printing.