Work has begun on a $1.4 million project under the Maturation of Advanced Manufacturing for Low-Cost Sustainment (MAMLS) program funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) through America Makes.
The project, which was announced at the 2018 RAPID + TCT event in Fort Worth, TX, commenced on June 13th. It will see a team led by the Applied Research Lab at Penn State, in collaboration with the Center for Innovative Processing thru Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D), conduct an investigation into flaw formation during powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (AM). They will also consider the impact of flaws on fatigue life.
Users and developers of powder bed fusion processes will know all too well the potential for random flaws to disrupt prints and harmfully impact the resulting parts. These flaws, including lack of fusion defects and powder contamination, can degrade fatigue life and contribute to the reluctance in some quarters for AM technologies to be adopted.