M. McGregor, Sagar Patel, Kevin Zhang, Adam Yu, M. Vlasea, Stewart McLachlin
{"title":"A manufacturability evaluation of complex architectures by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing","authors":"M. McGregor, Sagar Patel, Kevin Zhang, Adam Yu, M. Vlasea, Stewart McLachlin","doi":"10.1115/1.4065315","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Additive manufacturing (AM) enables new possibilities for the design and manufacturing of complex metal architectures. Incorporating lattice structures into complex part geometries can enhance strength-to-weight and surface area-to-volume ratios for valuable components, particularly in industries such as medical devices and aerospace. However, lattice structures and their interconnections may result in unsupported down-skin surfaces, potentially limiting their manufacturability by metal AM technologies, such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). This study aimed at examining the correlation between down-skin surface area and the manufacturability of lattice structures fabricated using LPBF. Image processing algorithms were used to analyze down-skin surface areas of seven unique lattice designs and to devise quantitative metrics (such as down-skin surface area, discrete surface count, surface inter-connectivity, down-skin ratio, over-print/under-print volumes, etc.) to evaluate LPBF manufacturability. The seven lattice designs were subsequently manufactured using maraging steel via LPBF, and then examined using imaging using X-ray micro-computed tomography (XCT). The geometric accuracy of the lattice designs was compared with XCT scans of the manufactured lattices by employing a voxel-based image comparison technique. The results indicated a strong relationship between down-skin surface area, surface interconnectivity, and the manufacturability of a given lattice design. The digital manufacturability evaluation workflow was also applied to a medical device design, further affirming its potential industrial utility for complex geometries.","PeriodicalId":507815,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4065315","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) enables new possibilities for the design and manufacturing of complex metal architectures. Incorporating lattice structures into complex part geometries can enhance strength-to-weight and surface area-to-volume ratios for valuable components, particularly in industries such as medical devices and aerospace. However, lattice structures and their interconnections may result in unsupported down-skin surfaces, potentially limiting their manufacturability by metal AM technologies, such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). This study aimed at examining the correlation between down-skin surface area and the manufacturability of lattice structures fabricated using LPBF. Image processing algorithms were used to analyze down-skin surface areas of seven unique lattice designs and to devise quantitative metrics (such as down-skin surface area, discrete surface count, surface inter-connectivity, down-skin ratio, over-print/under-print volumes, etc.) to evaluate LPBF manufacturability. The seven lattice designs were subsequently manufactured using maraging steel via LPBF, and then examined using imaging using X-ray micro-computed tomography (XCT). The geometric accuracy of the lattice designs was compared with XCT scans of the manufactured lattices by employing a voxel-based image comparison technique. The results indicated a strong relationship between down-skin surface area, surface interconnectivity, and the manufacturability of a given lattice design. The digital manufacturability evaluation workflow was also applied to a medical device design, further affirming its potential industrial utility for complex geometries.