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3: powder based rapid prototyping systems Selective laser sintering:

Selective Laser Sintering Process Selective laser sintering (SLS) is anadditive manufacturing technique that uses a high power laser (for example, a carbon dioxide laser) to fuse small particles ofplastic, metal (Direct Metal Laser Sintering),ceramic, or glass powders into a mass that has a desired 3-dimensional shape. The laser selectively fuses powdered material by scanning cross-sections generated from a 3-D digital description of the part (for example from a CAD file or scan data) on the surface of a powder bed. After each cross-section is scanned, the powder bed is lowered by one layer thickness, a new layer of material is applied on top, and the process is repeated until the part is completed. Because finished part density depends on peak laser power, rather than laser duration, a SLS machine typically uses a pulsed laser. The SLS machine preheats the bulk powder material in the powder bed somewhat below its melting point, to make it easier for the laser to raise the temperature of the selected regions the rest of the way to the melting point.

Some SLS machines use single-component powder, such as direct metal laser sintering. However, most SLS machines use two-component powders, typically either coated powder or a powder mixture. In single-component powders, the laser melts only the outer surface of the particles (surface melting), fusing the solid non-melted cores to each other and to the previous layer. Compared to other methods of additive manufacturing, SLS can produce parts from a relatively wide range of commercially available powder materials. These include polymers such as nylon, (neat, glass-filled or with other fillers) or polystyrene, metals including steel, titanium, alloy mixtures, and composites and green sand. The physical process can be full melting, partial melting, or liquid-phasesintering. And, depending on the material, up to 100% density can be achieved with material properties comparable to those from conventional manufacturing methods. In many cases large numbers of parts can be packed within the powder bed, allowing very high productivity. SLS is performed by machines called SLS systems. SLS technology is in wide use around the world due to its ability to easily make very complex geometries directly from digital CAD data. While it began as a way to build prototype parts early in the design cycle, it is increasingly being used inlimited-run manufacturing to produce end-use parts. One less expected and rapidly growing application of SLS is its use in art. SLS was developed and patented by Dr. Carl Deckard at the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-1980s, under sponsorship of DARPA. A similar process was patented without being commercialized by R.F. Housholder in 1979. Unlike some other additive manufacturing processes, such as Stereolithography (SLA) and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), SLS does not require support structures due to the fact that the part being constructed is surrounded by unsintered powder at all times.

Direct metal laser sintering:

Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is an additive metal fabrication technology developed by EOS out of Munich, Germany, somtimes also referred to by the terms Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) orSelective Laser Melting (SLM). The process involves use of a 3D CAD model whereby a .stl file is created and sent to the machines software. A technician works with this 3D model to properly orient the geometry for part building and adds supports structure as appropriate. Once this build file has been completed, it is sliced into the layer thickness the machine will build in and downloaded to the DMLS machine allowing the build to begin. The DMLS machine uses a high-powered 200 Watt Yb-fiber optic laser. Inside the build chamber area, there is a material dispensing platform and a build platform along with a recoater blade used to move new powder over the build platform. The technology fuses metal powder into a solid part by melting it locally using the focused laser beam. Parts are built up additively layer by layer, typically using 20 micron layers. This process allows for highly complex geometries to be created directly from the 3D CAD data, fully automatically, in hours and without anytooling. DMLS is a net-shape process, producing parts with high accuracy and detail resolution, good surface quality and excellent mechanical properties.

Benefits:
DMLS has many benefits over traditional manufacturing techniques. Speed is the most obvious because no special tooling is required and parts can be built in a matter of hours. Additionally, DMLS allows for more rigorous testing of prototypes. Since DMLS can use most alloys, prototypes can now be functional hardware made out of the same material as production components. The advantages do not stop with prototyping; DMLS is one of the few additive manufacturing technologies being used in production. It allows more design freedom, and more efficient designs in technical applications. Since the components are built layer by layer, it is possible to design internal features and passages that could not be cast or otherwise machined. Complex geometries and assemblies with multiple components can be simplified to fewer parts with a more cost effective assembly. DMLS does not require special tooling like castings, so production runs can be shorter and supply chains can carry less inventory.

Applications:
This technology is used to manufacture direct parts for a variety of industries including aerospace, dental, medical and other industries that have small to medium size, highly complex parts and the tooling industry to make direct tooling inserts. With a build envelop of 250mm x 250mm x 185mm height, and the ability to grow multiple parts at one time, DMLS is a very cost and time effective technology. The technology is used both for rapid prototyping, as it decreases development time for new products, and production manufacturing as a cost saving method to simplify assemblies and complex geometries.

Constraints:
The aspects of size, feature details and surface finish, as well as print through error in the Z axis may be factors that should be considered prior to the use of the technology. However, by planning the build in the machine where most features are built in the x and y axis as the material is laid down, the feature tolerances can be managed well. Do note that surfaces usually have to be polished to achieve mirror or extremely smooth finishes. For production tooling, material density of a finished part or insert should be addressed prior to use. For example, in injection molding inserts, any surface imperfections will cause imperfections in the plastic part, and the inserts will have to mate with the base of the mold with temperature and surfaces to prevent problems.

In this process metallic support structure removal and post processing of the part generated is a time consuming process and requires use of EDM and/or Grinding Machines having the same level of accuracy provided by the RP machine. Also for converting .stl file (generated from Solid works / Catia) need further conversion in .cli & .sli file (these format required for RP machine). The software like "Magics" which is convert .stl file in to .sli file is also costly and add direct cost in part manufacturing.

Materials:
Currently available alloys used in the process include 17-4 and 15-5 stainless steel, maraging steel,cobalt chromium, inconel 625 and 718, and titanium Ti6Alv4. Theoretically, almost any alloy metal can be used in this process once fully developed and validated.

Three Dimensional Printing:

Three dimensional printing was developed at MIT. It's often used as a direct manufacturing process as well as for rapid prototyping. The process starts by depositing a layer of powder object material at the top of a fabrication chamber. To accomplish this, a measured quantity of powder is first dispensed from a similar supply chamber by moving a piston upward incrementally. The roller then distributes and compresses the powder at the top of the fabrication chamber. The multi-channel jetting head subsequently deposits a liquid adhesive in a two dimensional pattern onto the layer of the powder

which becomes bonded in the areas where the adhesive is deposited, to form a layer of the object. Once a layer is completed, the fabrication piston moves down by the thickness of a layer, and the process is repeated until the entire object is formed within the powder bed. After completion, the object is elevated and the extra powder brushed away leaving a "green" object. No external supports are required during fabrication since the powder bed supports overhangs. Three dimensional printing offers the advantages of speedy fabrication and low materials cost. In fact, it's probably the fastest of all RP methods. Color output is also available, however there are limitations on resolution, surface finish, part fragility and available materials. The closest competitor to this process in terms of costs and applications is probably fused depostion modeling.

Laser engineered net shaping:

Laser powder forming (LPF) technologies such as Laser Engineered Net ShapingTM(LENS )* and several others are gaining in importance and are in early stages of commercialization. A high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied coaxially to the focus of the laser beam through a deposition head. The laser beam typically travels through the center of the head and is focused to a small spot by one or more lenses. The X-Y table is moved in raster fashion to fabricate each layer of the object. The head is moved up vertically as each layer is completed. Metal powders are delivered and distributed around the circumference of the head either by gravity, or by using a pressurized carrier gas. An inert shroud gas is often used to shield the melt pool from atmospheric oxygen for better control of properties, and to promote layer to layer adhesion by providing better surface wetting. A variety of materials can be used such as stainless steel, Inconel, copper, aluminum etc. Of particular interest are reactive materials such as titanium. Materials composition can be

changed dynamically and continuously, leading to objects with properties that might be mutually exclusive using classical fabrication methods. The strength of the technology lies in the ability to fabricate fully-dense metal parts with good metallurgical properties at reasonable speeds. Objects fabricated are near net shape, but generally will require finish machining. They have good grain structure, and have properties similar to, or even better than the intrinsic materials. Selective laser sintering is at present the only other commercialized RP process that can produce metal parts directly. However, laser powder forming methods have fewer material limitations than SLS, don't require secondary firing operations as some of those processes do, and can also be used to repair parts as well as fabricate them. Laser engineered net shaping or LENS is a technology developed by Sandia National Laboratoriesfor fabricating metal parts directly from a computer-aided design (CAD) solid model by using a metal powder injected into a molten pool created by a focused, highpowered laser beam. A high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied coaxially to the focus of the laser beam through a deposition head. The laser beam typically travels through the center of the head and is focused to a small spot by one or more lenses. The X-Y table is moved in raster fashion to fabricate each layer of the object. The head is moved up vertically as each layer is completed. Metal powders are delivered and distributed around the circumference of the head either by gravity, or by using a pressurized carrier gas. An inert shroud gas is often used to shield the melt pool from atmospheric oxygen for better control of properties, and to promote layer to layer adhesion by providing better surface wetting. This process is similar to other 3D fabrication technologies in its approach in that it forms a solid component by the layer additive method. The LENS process is unique since it can go from raw material directly to metal parts, in many cases, without any secondary operations. It can produce parts in a wide range of alloys, including titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, and other specialty materials; as well as composite and functionally graded materials. Primary applications for LENS technology include repair & overhaul, rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing, and limited-run manufacturing for aerospace, defense, and medical markets. Microscopy studies show the LENS parts to be fully dense with no compositional degradation. Mechanical testing reveals outstanding as-fabricated mechanical properties. The process can also make "near" net shape parts when it's not possible to make an item to exact specifications. In these cases post production light machining, surface finishing, or heat treatmentmay be applied to achieve end compliance.

Selective laser melting:

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing process that uses 3D CAD data as a digital information source and energy in the form of a high powered laser beam usually a ytterbium fiber laser, to create three dimensional metal parts by fusing fine metallic powders together. The industry standard term, chosen by the ASTM F42 standards committee is Laser Sintering and although this is acknowledged as a misnomer because the process fully melts the metal into a solid homogeneous mass. The process is also sometimes referred to by the trade names DMLS or LaserCusing, a similar process is Electron Beam Melting (EBM or E-beam), as the name suggests this uses electron beams as an energy source. Early experiments using lasers to fully fuse metal powders go back many years however the current generation of machines all emerged from a European project at the Fraunhofer institute in Aachen Germany in the mid 1990s. Following this the process was developed by two of the original Fraunhofer researchers Dr. Fockele and Dr. Schwarze who formed F&S (subsequently Realizer GmbH) and entered into a commercial partnership with MTT Technologies Group (formerly MCP). The process starts by slicing the 3D CAD file data into layers, usually from 20 microns to 100 microns thick, creating a 2D image of each layer; this file format is the industry

standard .stl file used on most layer based 3D printing or Stereolithography technologies. This file is then loaded into a file preparation software package that assigns parameters, values and physical supports that allow the file to be interpreted and built by different types of additive manufacturing machines. With SLM thin layers of atomised fine metal powder are evenly distributed using a coating mechanism onto a substrate plate, usually metal, that is fastened to an indexing table that moves in the vertical (Z) axis. This takes place inside a chamber containing a tightly controlled atmosphere of inert gas, either Argon or Nitrogen at oxygen levels below 500 parts per million. Once each layer has been distributed each 2D slice of the part geometry is fused by selectively applying the laser energy to the powder surface, by directing the focused laser beam using two high frequency scanning mirrors in the X and Y axes. The laser energy is intense enough to permit full melting (welding) of the particles to form solid metal. The process is repeated layer after layer until the part is complete.

Materials:
Most machines operate with a build chamber of 250 mm in X & Y and up to 350 mm Z (although larger machines up to 500 mm X,Y,Z and smaller machines do exist). The types of materials that can be processed include Stainless Steel, Tool Steel, Cobalt Chrome, Titanium & Aluminium, all must exist in atomised form and exhibit certain flow characteristics in order to be process capable.

Applications:
The types of applications most suited to the SLM process are complex geometries & structures with thin walls and hidden voids or channels. Advantage can be gained when producing hybrid forms where solid and partially formed or lattice type geometries can be produced together to create a single object, such as a hip stem or acetabular cup or other orthopedic implant where oseointegration is enhanced by the surface geometry. Much of the pioneering work with SLM technologies is on light weighting parts for aerospace where traditional manufacturing constraints, such as tooling and physical access to surfaces for machining, restrict the design of components. SLM allows parts to be built additively rather than by removing waste material to form near net shape components.

Future potential:
SLM or Additive Manufacturing (sometimes referred to as Rapid Manufacturing or Rapid Prototyping) is in its infancy with relatively few users in comparison to conventional methods such as machining, casting or forging metals, although those that are using the

technology have become highly proficient. Like any process or method SLM must be suited to the task in hand. Certain markets such as Aerospace or Medical orthopedics are actively evaluating the technology as a future manufacturing process but barriers to acceptance are high and compliance issues result in long periods of certification & qualification. This is currently demonstrated by the lack of fully formed international standards by which to measure the performance of competing systems. The standard in question is ASTM F2792-10 Standard Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Technologies.

Electron Beam Melting EBM:

Arcam's Electron Beam Melting method a 100% solid metallic object is produced directly from metal powder. The part, which is to be produced, is designed in a threedimensional CAD program. The model is sliced into thin layers, approximately a tenth of a millimeter thick. From a magazine of powder, an equally thin layer of powder is scraped onto a vertically adjustable surface. The first layers geometry is then created through the layer of powder melting together at those points directed from the CAD file, with a computer controlled electron beam. Thereafter, the building surface is lowered just as much as the layer of powder is thick, and the next layer of powder is placed on top of the previous. The procedure is then repeated so that the object from the CAD model is shaped, layer by layer by layer, until a finished metal part is complete. The usage of a highly efficient computer controlled electron beam in vacuum provides high precision and quality. EBM makes possible the fabrication of homogeneous metal components such as complex tooling for spray-forming and injection molding tools and functional prototypes in a very short time. The production process is fast in comparison with

conventional manufacturing methods. The highly efficient system produces parts from titanium powder and does so between three and five times faster than other additive fabrication methods. One other advantage is that reworking of the part is minimized. In contrast to laser sintering (SLS), the electron beam fully melts the metal particles to produce a void-free part. The process occurs in a high vacuum, which ensures the part is completely solid, without imperfections caused by oxidation. The EBM process is ideal for applications where high strength or high temperatures are required. The machine creates parts comparable to wrought titanium and better than cast titanium, with a 95 percent powder recovery yield. Medical product manufacturers can benefit from the parts' high flexural strength for bone implants requiring cycle life exceeding 10 million cycles (or movements). Automobile makers can build strong parts for high temperature testing, including under-the-hood applications. Aerospace engineers will be interested in the combination of a high strength yet light weight titanium part. And because the EBM process produces a homogenous solid, parts can be flight-certified. The process uses a high power electron beam that is 95 percent efficient -- 5 to 10 times more so than a laser beam. This efficiency results in the creation of parts 3 to 5 times faster than other metal additive-fabrication methods, and it uses only seven kW of average power. With laser-based systems, like sintering, 95 percent of the light energy is reflected by the powder rather than absorbed, significantly reducing efficiency. Two variations of titanium "six four" alloy are available for the EBM S400: Ti6AL4V and Ti6AL4V ELI. Titanium parts created on the system are accurate near-net shape and are HIP heat treatable. The system builds parts up to approximately 8 x 8 x 7 in. (200 x 200 x 180 mm), with a layer thickness range of 0.002 to 0.008 in. (0.05 - 0.2 mm). EBM systems are manufactured by Arcam AB and distributed in North America by Stratasys. Outside North America, the system is available from Arcam as the EBM S12.