Grant: Alliance Grants

To ensure robust additive manufacturing (AM) process, high-quality and expensive powders are currently used for the production of customized parts with adequate microstructure, acceptable porosity levels and good structural properties. The high cost of these powder limits the democratization of these agile fabrication processes. The present project looks at the possibility to reuse powder as a way to reduce production and operation costs and increase sustainability. Operating metallic reused powders is a technical challenge because the printing process is very sensitive to the powder characteristics, and these characteristics evolve with each reuse. This could impact the printability, microstructure, corrosion behavior or mechanical performances of the manufactured parts. Changes can occur in terms of particle size distribution, shape and surface topography, or chemical composition. All can influence the microstructure or the distribution and size of defects in the printed materials and affect their mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and consequent in-service performances. Several batches of simple parts printed with Ti64 reused powders after various number of reuses will be printed and characterized, including fatigue resistance. Defect characterization will be emphasized and extreme value statistics will be used to define proper printing conditions. Models will be developed to predict the probability of occurrence of critical defects but also the endurance limit after various reused cycles. This project is of great interest as its outcomes could make AM more versatile and sustainable while training High-qualified personnel in a prominent field of the Canadian industry.