SAE Update - January 2022 - 23

TECH FOCUS:
MATERIALS
AP&C, a GE Additive company, recently announced it has signed a new
agreement with Airbus to provide the company with Titanium powders (Ti6AI-4V)
for use in metal additive manufacturing applications.
technology, then AM will advance further into more
products. As an analogy, in the early days of the
automobile we had the Model T but today we have
more types of cars and many different makes and
models. Today, we have PBF as the Model T and there
are several brands, makes and models. AM is a diverse
space however and we are just learning how to use
Binder Jetting and Directed Energy Deposition, for
example which would be akin to sedans and pickup
trucks. You buy the vehicle best suited to what you
need to do.
What is the most important recent technical
development in AM materials?
I think within materials, we tend to have engineers
focused on different areas like feedstocks, processing,
and performance (i.e. printed part). We are getting to a
good understanding of processing-microstructuresperformance
but our understanding of how material
feedstocks work and perform is still progressing. When
we understand this complex world better, it will also
enable cost reductions because today, we are likely
overpecifying which drives up cost. If we look at
UPDATE
powders as an example, we tend
to assume they are being in used
in PBF but they are also used in
DED, BJ, and Cold Spray. What
we need out of those powders in
those different processes are not
the same, but we think about
them the same today. When we
advance powders to match them
to process requirements, I would
expect costs to come down and
performance to go up.
For example, we know that
powders need to be moved into
position, but we have only
focused on Hall Flow, which is
pretty narrow in terms of
applicability and scope. It is,
however, the one of the few
standards that exists for basic
powder measurement. As we like
to say at The Barnes Global
Advisors (TBGA), if it takes little
energy to get into position, it will
take little energy to get it back
out of position. This is what we
see with denudation, and it exists
in PBF and BJ. Denudation is, in
its simplest explanation, the force
exerted by the laser and the
binder on the bed which disturbs
it before the powders can melt or
be bound together. What we will
likely settle on is a minimum bed
density requirement which will
make good parts. When we have
January 2022
23
GE Additive, GEADPR058
SAE Update - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Update - January 2022
