Yu Sheng Shi

An organically modified montmorillonite/nylon‐12 composite powder for selective laser sintering

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reinforce the selective laser sintering (SLS) parts of nylon‐12 using organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT).Design/methodology/approach – A dissolution‐precipitation process is developed to prepare an OMMT/nylon‐12 composite powder (3 wt% OMMT). X‐ray diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize nanostructure features. The dispersion of OMMT in the nylon‐12 matrix was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The effect of OMMT on the thermal properties of nylon‐12 was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The mechanical properties of the SLS parts made from the composite powder and neat nylon‐12 powder were measured and compared.Findings – The X‐ray diffraction and SEM results indicate that the OMMT is intercalated by nylon‐12 molecular chains and uniformly dispersed in the nylon‐12 matrix during the dissolution‐precipitation process, and thus the OMMT/nylon‐12 intercalated nanocomposites are formed. Th...

Investigation and development of large-scale equipment and high performance materials for powder bed laser fusion additive manufacturing

The current available selective laser sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM) systems have relatively small effective building volumes, which do not offer capability to integrally manufacture a large dimension component. Therefore, our research team in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, has broken through some key techniques such as the large powder bed preheating system and multi-laser scanning technique, and then successfully developed a series of large-scale SLS systems with effective building volumes up to 1400×1400×500 mm3, and an SLM system with an effective building volume of 500×250×400 mm3. These large-scale SLS/SLM systems will not only offer new capability to make large complex prototypes and products, but also provide higher volume production capability to make numerous small parts rapidly and cost-effectively. In addition, several high performance materials have been developed for the large-scale SLS/SLM systems.

Fabricate Mould Insert with Conformal Cooling Channel Using Selective Laser Melting

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology can be used to fabricate plastic mould with complex conformal cooling channels directly and rapidly. In this paper, 316L stainless steel powders were used to produced a mould with an emphasis on attaining excellent mechanical properties.The precision, density and mechanical properties of parts were studied. Simulation and experimental results showed: the mould manufactured by SLM reveals good accuracy and performance, and the cooling efficiency of conformal cooling channels in mould has been greatly improved and the uniformity of cooling has been also upgraded.

Study on Direct Hot Isostatic Pressing Technology for Superalloy Inconel 625

Inert gas atomized (IGA) superalloy Inconel 625 powder was consolidated by hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) directly under the HIPing parameters of 1100°C/110MPa/3h. The structure and properties of the as–HIPed samples were investigated using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile tests at room temperature, and its relative density was measured by drainage. The fracture surface morphology of the tensile specimens have been investigated using SEM. The results showed that full density alloy can be obtained under the HIPing parameters of 1100°C/110MPa/3h. Due to the effect of prior particle boundaries (PPBs), the strength of the as-HIPed alloy is comparatively high, but its ductibility is comparatively low.

Manufacturing AISI316L Components via Selective Laser Melting Coupled with Hot Isostatic Pressing

Selective laser melting (SLMing) is a new advanced material processing technology which is used in fabricating parts with complex shape. Hot isostatic pressing (HIPing) is a manufacture technology which forms parts by imposing high heat and pressure on metal powders or semi-manufactured parts. Considering the advantages of both the technologies, they can be combined to produce higher-quality parts free from the limitation of the shape of parts. AISI316L stainless steel is widely used in manufacturing varies of complex metal parts. In this research, three AISI316L stainless steel samples with different relative densities were acquired by controlling the fabricating parameters in SLM. The SEM and optical microscopy analysis were employed to characterize the relative density, microstructure, deformation by comparing the differences between SLM samples and SLM-HIPped samples. In addition, the influence of HIP process on microstructures of samples in different laser fabricating parameters was investigated by analyzing the mechanisms of SLM and HIP. The results show that HIP can close vacuum crack and pore, consequently, the relative density of SLM samples increases after HIP, making the property of the samples improved and microstructure better-distributed. Moreover, the increment of relative density under the same HIP condition is also discussed.

Preparation and selective laser sintering of nylon‐coated metal powders for the indirect SLS process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report a new method, the dissolution‐precipitation process, to prepare nylon‐coated metal powders for the indirect selective laser sintering (SLS) process.Design/methodology/approach – The nylon‐12 coated carbon steel powders were prepared by the dissolution‐precipitation process. The powder characteristics are examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and laser diffraction particle size analysis. The effect of the applied laser energy density on the three‐point bend strength and dimensional accuracy of the SLS specimens are studied. The influence of nylon‐12 content on the bend strength are also investigated.Findings – The SEM and laser diffraction particle size analysis results indicate that the steel particles are well coated by nylon‐12 resin. The bend strength of the SLS specimens increases with increasing the applied energy density until it reaches a maximum value, and then further increasing energy density will cause the decrease in the bend strength. ...

Effects of the Processing Parameters on the Forming Quality of Stainless Steel Parts by Selective Laser Melting

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) can produce high-performance metal parts with complex structures. However, it’s difficult to control the processing parameters, because many factors involves. From the perspective of the molten pool, the study focuses on the effects of processing parameters, including scanning speed, laser power, scanning space, layer thickness, and scanning strategies, on the surface quality, the balling effect, the density of SLM parts, by conducting experiments of single track, single layer and block forming. The results show that the quality of the molten pool is affected by laser power and scanning speed. Scanning drove in the strategy of “jumping and turning”，a smooth surface and a less balling effect will be obtained. The thicker the powder layer is, the lower density will be obtained. The optimal parameters from series of experiments are: laser power of 98W; scanning speed of 90mm/s; scanning space of 0.07mm; layer thickness of 0.1mm; and scanning strategy of “jumping and turning”.

Study on the Dimensional Precision of the Polymer SLS Prototype

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has many advantages such as fast building speed, wide range of materials, complicate shape of prototype and simple post-treatment. However, the shrinkage and mechanical stresses result in lost of the accuracy. This paper investigates the dimension precision of polymer SLS prototypes and proposes methods to control dimensions in suitable degree. The influencing factors of dimensional precision in the file preparation of CAD model, manufacturing system of SLS prototype and sintering process are analyzed. It indicates that the sintering shrinkage in sintering process is the main reason of dimensional changes. To improve the dimensional precision, the measures are proposed to diminish the shrinkage: improving material of prototype, optimizing the sintering process and compensating the lost of dimension. After analysis the experimental results, the rule of error changes is summarized by fitting equations and feedback to controlling software of SLS system to improve the dimensional precision effectively. The SLS prototype could be controlled in 100±0.20mm through compensation.

Effects of the Processing Parameters on Porosity of Selective Laser Sintered Aliphatic Polycarbonate

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has been successfully and broadly applied in biomedical engineering to fabricated biomedical part. And the porosity and microstructure of part can be controlled by main sintered parameters. This research focused aliphatic Polycarbonate (PC) sintered with SLS. According to the orthogonal experiment, the effect of laser power energy and interaction between main sintered parameters on porosity has been studied. Then the micro structure and mechanical properties of specimens sintered with the best optimal parameters have been analyzed.

Research on Velocity-Displacement Curve for Mechanical Linkage Servo Press

With main transmission system structural form of main servo motor-worm and worm gear commutation reducer-transmission screw-linkage force increasing mechanism, mathematical model of linkage force increasing mechanism is established to obtain the relationships of the velocity and displacement between nut and slide. Velocity and displacement of feature points of slide on the velocity-displacement curve inputted by user transform into which of nut by binary search algorithm and linear interpolation calculation. The feature points of nut transform into the velocity and displacement arrays of points based on S-curve, and then the arrays of points transfer through UDP protocol to lower computer. After the linear fine interpolation by Siemens Simotion D425 motion controller, slide moves according to the setting velocity-displacement curve. The experimental results show that slide moves smoothly, which meets specific technology requirements. The achievements have been successfully applied to a self-developed 2000KN mechanical linkage servo press in a production line of hot forming technology for more than one year, which extends the technology application scope of traditional mechanical press, and improves product quality.