Streamlined frameworks for advancing metal based additive manufacturing technologies

Abstract

Metal-based additive manufacturing (AM) technologies such as selective laser melting (SLM) have seen successful applications in the gas turbine industry over the past years. The rapidly growing demand in AM requires in-depth knowledge of the process, materials and design for additive manufacturing (DFAM). However, the material characterization and process development are highly specific to a particular AM system, even for a number of standard alloys such as IN718 that are suitable for gas turbine applications. When the AM system changes or a new material becomes available, the whole development workflow needs to start almost “from scratch,” which consumes considerable time and effort. To address these issues, Siemens Power & Gas has established cross-divisional competence centers for AM to enhance collaborative material and process development. The article describes this framework and its effectiveness in streamlining the AM process and materials development. To close the design and manufacturing process chain, it is also critical to ensure that the full AM potential is accessible in design stages. In this article, a DFAM framework is proposed to drive the design paradigm shift to AM. In the framework, a complete DFAM process is defined based on existing studies of Siemens gas turbine applications. By integrating a set of DFAM methods, tools and considerations into the current gas turbine design processes, the AM-driven product design is enabled. We use Siemens large gas turbine applications to demonstrate the development and industrialization of AM using the frameworks. The benefits in reducing cost, expediting time to market, improving component performance and enabling new design freedom will be highlighted.