Structure/property behavior of additively manufactured (AM) materials: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

The certification and qualification paradigms required for additively manufactured (AM) metals and alloys must evolve given the absence of any broadly accepted “ASTM- or DIN-type” AM certification/qualification processes or fixed AM-material produced specifications. This is in part due to the breath of the evolved microstructures produced across the spectrum of AM manufacturing technologies including powder bed and directed energy systems. Accordingly, design and microstructure optimization, manufacture, and thereafter implementation and insertion of AM-produced materials to meet the wide range of engineering applications requires detailed quantification of the structure/property behavior of AM-materials, across the spectrum of metallic AM methods, in comparison/contrast to conventionally-manufactured metals and alloys. The scope of this talk is a discussion of some present opportunities and challenges to achieving qualification and certification of AM produced metals and alloys for engineering applications.