A Comparison between Direct and Indirect Laser Sintering of Metals

Layer manufacture technologies are gaining increasing attention in the manufacturing for the production of polymer mould tooling. Layer manufacture techniques can be used in this potential manufacturing area to produce tooling either indirectly or directly, and powder metal based layer manufacture systems are considered as an effective way of producing rapid tooling. Mechanical properties and accuracy are critical for tooling. This paper reports the results of an experimental study examining the potential of layer manufacturing processes to deliver production tooling for polymer manufacture. A comparison between indirectly selective laser sintering and directly selective laser sintering to provide the tooling was reported. Three main areas were addressed during the study： mechanical strength, accuracy, and build rate. Overviews of the results from the studies were presented.     

A study on tensile and fatigue properties of aged NAS 254N stainless steel at elevated temperatures

The effects of aging on tensile properties and fatigue crack growth behaviors of NAS 254N stainless steel was studied. Yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the aged specimens were almost the same as the as-received (as-rec.). The fracture strain, however, was decreased significantly by the aging, and the fracture surface of the aged at room temperature (RT) test was intergranular. As test temperature increased, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation decreased. And a type of serration was observed at 550-650°C As strain rate decreased, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength decreased, but elongation increased. It was observed that tensile strength and strain had a sudden change at one point. And this critical temperatureT _cr was 550°C. The effect of aging time on the tensile strength and strain was also investigated. Tensile strength and strain decreased significantly beyond 100hrs. Fatigue crack growth rate at RT was enhanced by the aging at high stress intensity factor range. This is due to the occurrence of the intergranular fracture in the aged specimen. At 650°C, the fatigue crack growth behavior was almost the same without intergranular fracture.     

A New Approach for Manufacturing a High Porosity Ti-6Al-4V Scaffolds for Biomedical Applications

Titanium and its alloys are currently considered as one of the most important metallic materials used in the biomedical applications, due to their excellent mechanical properties and superior biocompatibility. In the present study, a new effective method for fabricating high porosity titanium alloy scaffolds was developed. Porous Ti-6Al-4V scaffolds are successfully fabricated with porosities ranging from 30% to 70% using spaceholder and powder sintering technique. Based on its acceptable properties, spherical carbamide particles with different diameters （0.56, 0.8, and 1mm） were used as the space-holder material in the present investigation. The Ti-6Al-4V scaffolds porosity is characterized by using scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the scaffolds spherical-shaped pores are depending on the shape, size and distribution of the space-holder particles. This investigation shows that the present new manufacturing technique is promising to fabricate a controlled high porosity and high purity Ti-6Al-4V scaffolds for hard tissue replacement.     

A study on properties of corrosion fracture surfaces of GFRP in synthetic sea water

In this paper we investigate the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) mechanism and the properties of the corrosion fracture surface of glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP) produced by hand lay-up (HLU) in synthetic sea water. The test material is a GFRP with vinylester type epoxy acrylate resin (an unsaturated polyester) as the matrix and chopped strand mat (CSM) type E-glass fiber as the reinforcement. The slow strain rate test (SSRT) was perormed on dry and wet specimens in air and sea water. Here the pH concentration of synthetic sea water was controlled to 6.0, 8.2 and 10.0, and the strain rates varied from 1×10⁻⁴ (sec⁻¹) to 1×10⁻⁷ (sec⁻¹). The results confirm the fact that in wet specimens tested at a particular strain rate, evidence of SCC such as co-planar, mirror and hackle zone appear. Moreover, stress corrosion of GFRP in sea water was characterised by flat fracture surfaces with only small amounts of fiber pull-out.     

Hardness and wear resistance improvement of surface composite layer on Ti–6Al–4V substrate fabricated by powder sintering

A wear resistant surface composite layer on Ti–6Al–4V substrate was fabricated using powder sintering method. The surface composite layer consisted of Ti–6Al–4V matrix and different fractions of TiN particles as reinforcement phase. The surface layer and the substrate were directly bonded together while the powders were cold formed and then sintered at an elevated temperature. The two layers showed good metallurgical bond. In this study, 5%, 10% and 15% TiN weight fractions were adopted to fabricate the surface composite layer. Effects of TiN addition on the microstructure, hardness and wear resistance were investigated. It was found that the wear resistance of the surface composite layer was improved due to the addition of TiN compared to that of pure Ti–6Al–4V.     

Effect of Si3N4 Addition on the Mechanical Properties, Microstructures, and Wear Resistance of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

In order to improve the wear resistance of Ti-6Al-4V, different amounts of Si3N4 powder were added into the alloy powder and sintered at 1250℃. Porous titanium alloy with higher wear resistance was successfully fabricated. At sintering temperature, reaction took place and a new hard phase of Ti5Si3 formed. The mechanical properties of the fabricated alloys with different amounts of Si3N4 addition were investigated. The hardness of Ti-6Al-4V, which is the index of wear resistance, was increased by the addition of Si3N4. Amounts of Si3N4 addition have very significant influences on hardness and compressive strength. In present study,titanium alloy with 5 wt pct Si3N4 addition has 62% microhardness and 45% overall bulk hardness increase,respectively. In contrast, it has a 16.4% strength reduction. Wear resistance was evaluated by the weight loss during wear test. A new phase of Ti5Si3 was detected by electron probe microanalyzer （EPMA） and X-ray diffraction （XRD） method. The original Si3N4 decomposed during sintering and transformed into titanium silicide. Porous structure was achieved due to the sintering reaction.     

Fatigue strength and fracture behaviour of CHS-to-RHS T-joints subjected to out-of-plane bending

The fatigue behaviour of six different hollow section T-joints subjected to out-of-plane bending moment was investigated experimentally using scaled steel models. The joints had circular brace members and rectangular chord members. Hot spot stresses and the stress concentration factors (SCFs) were determined experimentally. Fatigue testing was carried out under constant amplitude loading in air. The test results have been statistically evaluated, and show that the experimental SCF values for circular-to-rectangular (CHS-to-RHS) hollow section joints were found to be below those of circular-to-circular (CHS-to-CHS) hollow section joints. The fatigue strength, referred to experimental hot spot stress, was in reasonably good agreement with referred fatigue design codes for tubular joints.     

Thermal shock/fatigue evaluation of FGM by AE technique

This study has been carried out to analyze the thermal shock and fatigue characteristics of functionally gradient material (FGM). The thermal shock/fatigue tests were conducted at a specific temperature and fracture patterns were studied by SEM and AE. Also, thermal fracture behavior of plasma-sprayed FGM and conventional coating material (NFGM) was examined by acoustic emission technique under heating and cooling. Furnace cooling and air cooling tests were used to examine the effect of temperature change under various conditions. The conventional and FGM coatings were compared to heat-resistant property and fracture surface of these materials for each temperature history. Based on these results, some critical temperature at the onset of coating failure can be evaluated to characterize the thermal resistance of the materials. It turned out to be that FGM gives higher thermal property compared with NFGM by AE signal and fracture surface analysis.     

Environmental strength evaluation of welded steel joint in seawater

A study on corrosion fatigue was experimentally conducted for the as-welded and PWHT specimens of the steels, HT80 and SM53B in 3.5% NaCl solution. Submerged arc welding was done. PWHT was carried out at comparatively high temperature of 650° C. Besides, in order to simulate the residual stress in weld HAZ, the stress of 98MPa was applied during PWHT. Corrosion fatigue crack growth was dependent upon the materials and PWHT conditions. In the case of HT80, crack growth in corrosion environment was faster than that in air. However, the crack growth of the main crack for SM53B in 3.5% NaCl solution was decreased in comparison with that in air, unlike HT80. The sensitivity to corrosion environment was reduced due to PWHT. The applied stress in HAZ during PWHT acted to enhance the crack growth compared with that of the PWHT specimen without stress.     

Moisture absorption,tensile strength and microstructure evolution of short jute fiber/polylactide composite in hygrothermal environment

In this research, aging behaviors of short jute fiber/Polylactide (PLA) composite material in hygrothermal environment were investigated. The material was fabricated by using film stacking hot pressed method. The aging was carried out for uncoated samples and adhesive tape coated samples in saturated vapor at 70 °C. Moisture absorption rates of the samples were measured during the aging process. It is found that the moisture absorption process of uncoated samples includes three stages: a short and quick moisture uptaking stage, a slow stable uptaking stage and an abrupt very quick moisture uptaking stage. Microstructures of the samples in different aging stages were observed. The main defects occurred during the aging process include pores, microcracks, delamination and complete relaxation in the whole structure. The results reveal that the moisture absorption and aging process can be effectively retarded by coating. The molecular weight measurement by gel permission chromatography (GPC) indicated that the PLA matrix was severely degraded in hygrothermal environment. Tensile strength severely decreased after aging.