TY - JOUR
T1 - An Experimental Analysis to Determine the Load-Bearing Capacity of 3D Printed Metals
AU - Kogo, Bridget
AU - Xu, Chao
AU - Wang, Bin
AU - Chizari, Mahmoud
AU - Kashyzadeh, Kazem Reza
AU - Ghorbani, Siamak
N1 - © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2022/6/19
Y1 - 2022/6/19
N2 - Reverse engineering is conducted based on the analysis of an already existing product. The results of such an analysis can be used to improve the functioning of the product or develop new organizational, economic, information technology, and other solutions that increase the efficiency of the entire business system, in particular 3D printed products. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to focus on evaluation of the load-bearing capacity of already existing 3D printed metals in order to see their suitability for the intended application and to obtain their relevant mechanical properties. To this end, 3D printed metallic bars with almost square cross-sections were acquired from an external company in China without any known processing parameters, apart from the assumption that specimens No. 1–3 are printed horizontally, and specimens No. 4–7 are printed vertically. Various experiments were conducted to study microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of 3D printed metals. It was observed that specimens No. 1–6, were almost similar in hardness, while specimen No. 7 was reduced by about 4.5% due to the uneven surface. The average value of hardness for the specimens was found to be approximately 450 HV, whereas the load-extension graphs assessed prior point towards the conclusion that the specimens’ fractured in a brittle status, is due to the lack of plastic deformation. For different specimens of the 3D printed materials, the main defects were identified, namely, lack of fusion and porosity are directly responsible for the cracks and layer delamination, prevalent in SLM printed metals. An extensive presence of cracks and layer delamination prove that the printing of these metallic bars was completed in a quick and inaccurate manner, which led to higher percentages of lack of fusion due to either low laser power, high scan speed, or the wrong scan strategy.
AB - Reverse engineering is conducted based on the analysis of an already existing product. The results of such an analysis can be used to improve the functioning of the product or develop new organizational, economic, information technology, and other solutions that increase the efficiency of the entire business system, in particular 3D printed products. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to focus on evaluation of the load-bearing capacity of already existing 3D printed metals in order to see their suitability for the intended application and to obtain their relevant mechanical properties. To this end, 3D printed metallic bars with almost square cross-sections were acquired from an external company in China without any known processing parameters, apart from the assumption that specimens No. 1–3 are printed horizontally, and specimens No. 4–7 are printed vertically. Various experiments were conducted to study microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties of 3D printed metals. It was observed that specimens No. 1–6, were almost similar in hardness, while specimen No. 7 was reduced by about 4.5% due to the uneven surface. The average value of hardness for the specimens was found to be approximately 450 HV, whereas the load-extension graphs assessed prior point towards the conclusion that the specimens’ fractured in a brittle status, is due to the lack of plastic deformation. For different specimens of the 3D printed materials, the main defects were identified, namely, lack of fusion and porosity are directly responsible for the cracks and layer delamination, prevalent in SLM printed metals. An extensive presence of cracks and layer delamination prove that the printing of these metallic bars was completed in a quick and inaccurate manner, which led to higher percentages of lack of fusion due to either low laser power, high scan speed, or the wrong scan strategy.
KW - additive manufacturing
KW - fracture surface analysis
KW - mechanical properties
KW - microstructural analysis
KW - selective laser melting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132934583&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ma15124333
DO - 10.3390/ma15124333
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132934583
VL - 15
JO - Materials
JF - Materials
IS - 12
M1 - 4333
ER -