Journal of Materials Processing Technology最新文献

During laser welding of pure copper, instabilities such as violent molten pool oscillation, large spatters, and melt ejection severely damage weld quality, which are caused by copper’s high reflectivity on commonly used infrared laser. The seriously unstable molten pool and keyhole and complicated laser-material interactions result in complex process signal emission waveforms, adding to the difficulties in process stability monitoring tasks. In this work, to break down different contents in the complex signals and deeply analyzing signal-process relation, combinative spatial optical sensor system was designed, and time-frequency signal analysis in multi-scale windows was performed. It was found that the infrared radiation at the front and end side of molten pool indicates the oscillation behavior of liquid metal surface, and the signal fluctuation patterns of visible radiation from different height of metal vapor varied when meeting severe instability like melt ejections. Signal features were extracted based on the understanding of process mechanism and signal behaviors. A cascade model combining Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) was introduced to predict weld seam quality, where the ANN model focused on short-time stability status perception and the SVM model was used to decide macroscopic seam formation defects based on combining outputs of the ANN model in a long-term sampling window. Application results showed that the recognition accuracy of pit was 100 % and the accuracy of uneven toe reached 86.3 %. The multi-source signals of unstable molten pool recognized by the cascade model were summarized. The evolution process of copper molten pool ejection was revealed.

As the scale of additive manufacturing process (e.g., laser spot size, powder particle size, powder layer thickness) decreases, the application of micro laser powder bed fusion (μ-LPBF) involves novel mechanisms for process, microstructure and performance coordination. This study provides a systematic view of the processing window and performance enhancement of high-strength Al-Mg-Sc-Zr alloy fabricated by μ-LPBF. The effects of μ-LPBF parameters on defect control and densification activity of the printed parts were analyzed, so as to obtain the suitable processing window. The influence of building orientation and heat treatment on microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of μ-LPBF processed parts was studied. The μ-LPBF Al-Mg-Sc-Zr exhibited sound surface quality (R_a of 6.088 μm) and considerably refined grains with an average size of 1.102 μm, which was related to the high cooling rate (8.6 × 10⁷ K/s) induced by a small-sized laser beam (25 μm) and a tiny powder particle size distribution (2–20 μm) applied in μ-LPBF. After aging treatment (325 °C/4 h), the superior ultimate tensile strength of 590.24 ± 4.75 MPa combined with the sufficiently high elongation of 11.99 ± 1.17 % was achieved. Due to the significantly decreased scale of μ-LPBF production, the anisotropy caused by the variation of building directions was negligible. These enhanced mechanical properties were attributed to the combined effect of the grain size refinement, the higher number density (1.2 × 10²⁴/mm³) of interior precipitates within grains, and the small-sized molten pool size of μ-LPBF. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was applied to reveal the molten pool thermodynamics, indicating that a higher thermal temperature gradient (up to 9.8×10⁷ K/m), a smaller molten pool size (with the width of 38.7–69.8 μm and depth of 8.7–30.0 μm) were generated in μ-LPBF. This work presents great potential in processing high-precision metallic components with fine structural feature size and satisfactory manufacturing quality.

The characteristics of a new alternating current (AC) heterogeneous twin-wire indirect arc welding (TWIAW) process were comprehensively studied. A mathematical model of non-uniform melting was designed to evaluate the control stability of a twin-wire indirect arc and also in guiding the wire feeding speeds. The effect of AC frequency, current amperage, and current waveform on the stabilities of indirect arc and droplet transfer characteristics were investigated. The results show, the arc was relatively stable within an AC frequency range of 2.5–10 Hz. Droplet transition diagram and force analyses have been established to study the arc characteristics and droplet transfer mechanisms, respectively. Current waveforms with peak and base currents were investigated to study the stability of droplet transfers. Current waveform with two peak values and one base value improved the stability of the arc. When the peak current was 130 A/10 ms and the base current was 110 A/40 ms, the arc shape and droplet transfer were the most stable, along with a continuous and smooth weld seam. Through theoretical analysis and experiments, the rules of heterogeneous double-wire AC indirect arc current voltage and droplet transfer were clarified for the first time, and a waveform adjustment method that can control droplet transfer was designed. The heat input and the amount of cladding metal can be controlled by adjusting the current waveform. It has stable droplet transfer and extremely high cladding efficiency, which is of great significance to the indirect arc process in the heterogeneous multi-wire arc additive manufacturing of high-strength aluminum alloys.

In order to overcome the defects during the process of additive manufacturing for AA6061, a novel ultrasonic rolling assisted direct energy deposition method with semi-solid thixo-forming characteristics was proposed in this study, which used cold deformed AA6061 wire as raw material, and a corresponding process platform was established. The results showed that under the conditions of laser heating temperature of 750 ℃ and heating plate temperature of 200 ℃, the sample could achieve continuous multi-pass deposition while retaining some of the cold-drawn plastic deformation energy. When the vertical deformation rate was 0.153 and the ultrasonic amplitude was 20 μm, the microstructure of deposition sample after semi-solid heat-treat exhibited typical equiaxed grain characteristics, corresponding to average grain diameter of 95.6 μm and shape coefficient of 1.263. Thin-walled samples with different shapes were formed to verify the capability of process platform. The inference of the formation mechanism of semi-solid microstructure was revealed at last: the introduction of ultrasonic rolling supplemented the plastic deformation energy, and semi-solid heat-treat provided temperature and time for the incubation of equiaxed grains, both of which were crucial for the formation of the semi-solid microstructure.

Plasma anisotropic etching polishing (plasma-AEP), a non-contact polishing method, is proposed to achieve highly efficient planarization of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) films. Inductively coupled plasma, with a high concentration of reactive radicals, serves as the source of plasma-AEP. In-situ observation confirms that the planarization effect of plasma-AEP is realized through the preferential removal of the top areas of the pyramid-shaped protrusions, despite the entire surface being uniformly irradiated by the plasma. The material removal rate in plasma-AEP for PCD achieves 127 μm/min. Plasma-AEP is proven effective for PCD films with thicknesses of 0.5, 1, and 2 mm, demonstrating a generic semi-finishing approach for PCD regardless of thickness. Atomic-scale nudged elastic band calculations revealed that the energy barriers for CO and CO₂ desorption from 1- and 2-coordinated C atoms are significantly lower than those for 3- and 4-coordinated ones. ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations showed that at the top areas of the pyramid-shaped protrusions, 1- and 2-coordinated C atoms with a higher etching priority remained dominant during plasma-AEP, leading to the preferential removal of C atoms forming these protrusions. Furthermore, contact polishing was added to complete the finishing of the PCD film, followed by plasma-AEP, resulting in a nanoscale smooth surface with a roughness of 3.4 nm. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the crystal structures on the surface and subsurface of the PCD film were well ordered. Overall, this paper displays that plasma-AEP is a promising approach for highly efficient semi-finishing of PCD films.

The balance between softening and hardening is still a great challenge for the laser welding of the high strength low alloy steel. For example, welding with low heat input was commonly used to avoid softening, but it would inversely harden the joint and introduce the undesired welding defects such as hydrogen-induced cracks. This work proposed a simple and robust processing technique, denominated High Frequency electric cooperated Laser Welding. Laser heat source was combined with high-frequency electric heat source to balance heat input distribution and reconcile the contradiction between softening and hardening in the welding of high strength low alloy steel. As a structural material sensitive to welding softening and hardening, S690QL steel was adopted to show the fundamental advancement of the new process. Benefitted from the skin effect and proximity effect of high-frequency current that improve the heat input distribution and the regulation of the high-frequency heat input proportion, the martensite content in the heat affected zone was greatly reduced, whilst the grain size was limited to a low value. Under the high-frequency heat input proportion of 47.1 %, lower bainite distributed throughout the heat affected zone. The softening and hardening issues of the joint therefore have been improved simultaneously: the tensile strength of the joint was almost equal to that of the base material, the impact energy of weld seam and the heat affected zone reached 77.6 J and 66.2 J respectively.

There is a general separation between the manufacturing processes that add value to materials on the factory floor and the techniques engineers use in the laboratory to evaluate the microstructures and the surface integrity that results. These techniques are often destructive or require a vacuum and are incompatible with production lines. However, this information has intrinsic value and could be exploited to inform production decisions during manufacture. In this study, a novel approach to acquire this information is presented that is underpinned by electrolyte jet machine tool coupled with optical microscopy, which can allow the extraction of both grain-wise partial orientation and morphological information, and crystallographic macro textures in three dimensions. Here, iterative sections are precisely machined into the near surface of a commercially pure titanium alloy using an electrochemical jet and subsequently imaged, allowing the reconstruction of high-fidelity microstructure models rapidly and under ambient conditions. In doing so, new insights into the specific orientation-dependent dissolution mechanisms are offered, and the acquisition of appropriate conditions that result in nanoscale roughness surfaces (avoiding the dominance of pitting and preferential grain removal) is firstly explored. Building on prior work, a piecewise approach is presented to analyse the acquired image stacks to map partial crystal orientations, while different approaches are proposed to account for jet-specific surface artefacts and waviness. This is repeated over 20 layers in an individual specimen and layer-wise orientation maps are used to construct volumetric models of the specimen. These data sets are then explored from the perspective of materials/manufacturing engineers, who may use to this information to effect advancements to materials processing technologies.

Ultra-large extrusion ratio is hardly inevitable during porthole die extrusion of miniature complex hollow profile on industrial horizontal extruders. Although batch extrusion of miniature complex hollow profile has been achieved at ultra-large extrusion ratio, their microstructure and mechanical properties are still unclear. To this end, under the extrusion temperature ranging from 400 ℃ to 480 ℃, a 4×4 mm Al-Mg-Si alloy micro heat pipe profile was extruded at an ultra-large extrusion ratio of 137. The grain size and crystal orientation of the profile were obtained by metallographic and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) techniques, and further exploration of the microhardness, tensile properties and pressure-resisting performance were conducted. Interestingly, severely weakened extrusion strengthening effect and low sensitivity of microstructure and mechanical properties to extrusion temperature were observed. Compared to the as-cast extrusion billet, the profile exhibits slight grain refinement and improvement in mechanical performance, and the extrusion temperature does not significantly affect the microstructure and mechanical properties. Instead, as the extrusion temperature increases, the recrystallization fraction generally decreases. These abnormal phenomena are inferred from the fact that even at lower extrusion temperatures, an ultra-large extrusion ratio leads to premature dynamic recrystallization (DRX), and more abnormal growth grains are formed in the profile, weakening the mechanical properties. The higher the extrusion temperature, the earlier DRX occurs, generally forming more abnormal growth and dynamic recovery grains.

It is widely accepted that aluminum alloy-based materials exhibit improved formability and enhanced ductility under high-speed impact. However, in this study, the experimental results were not entirely similar to the traditional theoretical results. Thus, this study once again confirms the conclusion that high-rate forming can increase the forming limit of materials, and simultaneously supplements the conclusion. Herein, a hybrid process combining quasi-static hydraulic forming and electromagnetic hydraulic forming was proposed. The effects of the forming sequence and pre-deformation amount on sheet bulging and fracture morphology were analyzed via experiments and simulation. It was found that when the electromagnetic hydraulic forming is pre-deformation and the quasi-static hydraulic forming is post-deformation, the forming height of aluminum alloy does not improve significantly. Conversely, when the quasi-static hydraulic forming is pre-deformation and the electromagnetic hydraulic forming is post-deformation, the forming height of aluminum alloy improves significantly. In case of pre-deformation quasi-static liquid pressure P₀ = 2 MPa, and post-deformation electromagnetic hydraulic forming, the limit forming height is 22.4 % higher than that under quasi-static hydraulic forming. Moreover, the limiting voltage decreases with increasing pre-deformation quasi-static liquid pressure P₀, and the energy consumption reduces by 42.9 %. The deformation behavior and damage characteristics of quasi-static hydraulic forming, electromagnetic hydraulic forming, and hybrid forming were accurately predicted by multi-physics coupling analysis. Compared with quasi-static hydraulic forming, void nucleation and growth are inhibited due to high-speed impact. In particular, when the sheet is about to crack during high-speed forming, the voids that should have grown sharply are significantly inhibited. Therefore, the improved formability mainly acts at the post-deformation stage during high-speed forming, with the analytical results corroborating the experimental and simulation ones.