Reproducing wrought grain structure in additive IN718 through nanosecond laser induced cavitation

Pulsed laser assisted additive manufacturing has been demonstrated as a promising technology for controlling grain structure in 3D-printing processes. The integration of a nanosecond laser onto a wire arc additive manufacturing tool has enabled the localized printing of Inconel 718 with grain sizes meeting ASTM 9 standards (average measured grain size of $13.7\mu m$) for wrought material within a single bead under solidification conditions that would otherwise produce $340\mu m$ columnar grains. The observed grain refinement holds promise, provided scale up is possible, for overcoming the highly anisotropic mechanical properties and microcracking associated with large columnar grains of Inconel 718 that have long stood in the way of leveraging the advantages of direct energy deposition printing techniques of difficult to machine alloys. Experiments on large bead sizes allowed for decoupling surface versus bulk nanosecond laser/liquid metal interaction mechanisms to determine that the source of the observed grain refinement is the collapse of cavitation bubbles originating from acoustic waves generated by momentum transfer into the melt of an ablation plasma. Additionally, experiments that increased the cavitation bubble density within the mushy zone during solidification by tuning the nanosecond laser scan path went beyond the 25 times reduction in grain size to a 70 times factor of refinement with a minimum average grain diameter approaching $4\mu m$.