ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Abstract

A method is for reducing surface roughness of an additive manufactured metallic component. The method includes placing the component in a chamber, filling the chamber with a combustible gas mixture, allowing the gas mixture to surround the component and igniting the gas mixture so as to expose the surface of the additive manufactured metallic component to at least one thermal pulse.

Claims

1. A method of reducing surface roughness of an additive manufactured metallic component, the method comprising: placing the component in a chamber, filling the chamber with a combustible gas mixture, allowing the gas mixture to surround the component and igniting the gas mixture so as to expose the surface of the additive manufactured metallic component to at least one thermal pulse.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of exposing the surface of the additive manufactured metallic component to at least one thermal pulse comprises exposing the surface to a plurality of thermal pulses.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein surface oxides are removed by abrasively cleaning after the thermal pulse.

4. The method of any of claims 1, wherein improving the surface roughness of an additive manufactured metallic component comprises smoothing the surface roughness caused by remnants of support structures formed during the additive manufacturing process.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the thermal pulse is at a temperature exceeding the melting point of the metallic material.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the thermal pulse is an explosive or pseudo-explosive ignition.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein any support structures formed during additive manufactured are removed from the metallic component prior to application of the method of improving surface roughness.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the metallic component is heat treated prior to application of the method of improving surface roughness

9. A method of additive manufacturing metallic components, the method comprising the steps of: forming a component in a layer-by-layer process; removing any support structure(s) formed during the layer-by-layer process; and reducing surface roughness of the additive manufactured metallic component in accordance with the method of claim 1.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the additive manufacturing process comprises powder bed selective laser manufacturing.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the additive manufacturing process comprises powder bed selective laser manufacturing.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0040] Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0041] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a part manufactured by a conventional additive manufacturing method;

[0042] FIG. 2 shows examples metal parts formed by additive manufacturing with support structures both present and removed;

[0043] FIG. 3 shows a flow chart for the forming an additive manufactured component in accordance with embodiments of the invention; and

[0044] FIG. 4 shows a series of images (at varying magnification) of the surface of a metallic component formed in a powder bed process prior to treatment of the surface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0045] A schematic representation of a metal part 1 manufactured in an additive manufacturing method is shown in FIG. 1. The metal part is for example a casing and includes a cavity la within its body. The part 1 is formed by being built up on a layer-by-layer manner on a baseplate 4 in a manner which will be well known to those skilled in the art.

[0046] A bulk support structure 2 is provided within the cavity la of the part 1. The bulk support is arranged to be built relatively quickly during the additive layer manufacture but to have sufficient strength to resist the loads from the part 1 and, for example to resists geometric distortion of the part 1. The skilled person will appreciate that the support 2 may have any convenient (optimised) form and could be a solid or for example a lattice or honeycomb structure.

[0047] To ensure that the support 2 can be removed from the component 1 after manufacture it is provided with an interface 3 which forms a distinct “break line” between the support 2 and component 1. The interface may comprise a number of distinct, tooth like, interface members 3a, 3b, 3c which join the component 1 and support 2. It will be appreciated that the component 1, support 2 and interface 3 are all integrally formed on a layer-by-layer basis during the additive manufacturing process.

[0048] Some example photographs are shown in FIG. 2 to illustrate the removal of a support structure 2′ from a component 1′ using the method in accordance with embodiments of the invention. It may be noted that the photographs show the support 2′ both in situ, partially removed and after removal (with remnants of the interface showing).

[0049] The method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is shown by the flow chart of FIG. 3. In the initial step 10 a component is built along with support structures by a known metallic additive manufacture process. A subsequent heat treatment 20 is applied to the part after removal from the additive layer manufacturing machine (but with the part remaining attached to the baseplate to resist deformation. This heat treatment is in a non-oxidising atmosphere (inert or vacuum) and is intended to reduce or minimise residual stresses.

[0050] With the residual stresses reduced by the heat treatment process 20, the component may processed 30 to remove it from the baseplate (but will still have associated support structure attached or embedded within it).

[0051] After this removal the part and support structure may optionally be subjected to a thermal pulse process 40 to weaken the interfaces between the support and component. This thermal pulse is carried out in a sealed chamber at increased pressure. The chamber is filled with methane and air which is allowed to fully surround the component prior to ignition to provide extremely rapid and high temperature combustion (an explosive or pseudo explosive process). The thermal pulse may for example last approximately 20 milliseconds and result in an increase in temperature within the chamber of between 2500° C. and 3500° C. and a pressure spike of up to 2000 bar. The heat will strike the surfaces of the component and support structure but is of insufficient duration to cause bulk heating thereof. The thermal pulse step may for example be carried out using a conventional thermal deburring apparatus.

[0052] The thermal pulse step 40 has been found to weaken the interface parts 3 of the support 2 but since it does not cause any bulk heating of the component 1 it does not cause any change in its material properties. In contrast the interface parts are assumed to have a greater thermal conductivity so experience more significant surface oxidation and/or vaporisation and/or melting during the thermal pulse. This has been found to have provide a significant weakening of the interface and aid removal of the support (in step 50 below)

[0053] After the heat treatment and optional thermal pulse step 40, the support 50 using any convenient mechanical processing step 50 (and the skilled person will appreciate that the particular mechanical process selected may depend upon several factors such as the material and geometry of the component and support).

[0054] Once the support has been fully removed it is normal to apply a final abrasive cleaning step 70 such as abrasive blasting to remove any remaining remnants of the interface members 3 from the separated component 1. In accordance with an embodiment prior to such abrasive blasting the component may be subjected to a further thermal pulse step 60. The thermal pulse step 60 may include the application of a plurality of thermal pulses.

[0055] It has surprisingly been found that the application of this additional step 70 (thermal pulse followed by abrasive blasting) produces a greater reduction in surface roughness than abrasive blasting alone—and in fact is so effective could be used alone if, for example, oxide removal is not required. This appears to go directly against the teaching in the art since an advantage of utilising thermal pulses in known processes such as thermal deburring is that component surfaces are not affected. When the method of an embodiment was applied to test pieces by the applicant it was found to demonstrate a reduce surface roughness (Ra measurement), measured using a surface profilometer following the subsequent abrasive blasting process 70, of at least 30% and typically 50% to 60%.

[0056] To help illustrate the effect of the invention, FIG. 4 shows a close-up view of a metal powder-bed component surface before any treatments of the surface. It can be seen that additional unwanted material in the form of sintered-on metal powder causes undesirable surface roughness. The origin of the material as being formed from metal powder is clear—the heat affected zone around the melt pool created by the point source of heat causes powder to sinter(but not fully melt)-onto the surface. As the powder bed is approximately 50% dense and the powder is generally spherical the resultant surface viewed locally is relatively speaking very rough—and very different from a surface formed by any other process such as a cutting, grinding, moulding or electro-discharge machining process.

[0057] It is important to note, and will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that no burrs are present on the additively manufactured surfaces being described here and therefore a deburring process is not required. Burrs result from cutting processes and the process described here results in a reduction in surface roughness when applied before any cutting processes.

[0058] Without being bound to any particular theory, the applicants believe that the reduction in surface roughness is a result of the residual high points of the interface between a support (and the narrowing of neck between a sintered-on metal powder particle, and for example high points of roughness on downward faces) being vaporised, oxidised or melted by the thermal pulse creating a selectivity to the process and thereby enabling a smoothing to take place. The surface oxide than results from the earlier heat treatment and thermal process is then preferably removed by abrasive blasting.

[0059] Although the invention has been described above with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that various changes or modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. For example, the reduction in surface roughness resulting from the thermal pulses may be sufficient and a mechanical smoothing and removal of surface oxide is not required- thus saving time and expense.