Materials testing
ASSESSING ADDITIVE
MATERIAL SAFETY FOR
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES
The fatigue assessment of laser additive
manufactured aluminum alloys is helping to
assess aerospace component capabilities
// DR. OLESIA KHAFIZOVA
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing
is a growth factor in advanced
economies. Recently, additive
manufacturing has entered production to a
much greater extent and is established in
many manufacturing industries such as
transportation, aerospace, and healthcare.
Regarding weight and stiffness, metal
components of advanced alloys compete
with injection-molded plastic parts.
Additive manufacturing (AM) provides an
agile environment which may reduce the
lead time from conception to production by
70% or more, depending on the type of
manufacturing desired. The pace of
innovation is accelerating along the value
chain in AM industries, independent of the
size of the company. AM is poised to
shrink the supply chain of the component
as multiple parts of a product can be
printed at a single time.
The aerospace industry is at the
forefront of AM research. But it is obliged
to fulfil the highest quality and safety goals
for its products. As a leading manufacturer
in analytical instrumentation and material
testing, Shimadzu provides the whole
range of scientific equipment,
measurement techniques and testing
facilities for the entire process of additive
manufacturing – from the control of raw
material particle powder size and shape to
complex testing of reliability material
characteristics of finished components:
Particle measuring, elemental analysis,
micro compression/hardness testing, static
testing (tensile, compression, bending) as
well as low to high cycle fatigue testing
(LCF/HCF) and very high cycle fatigue
testing (VHCF).
Purity, reliability and durability are key
features to make a top-class AM product.
High quality of raw materials, such as
powder is essential to achieve a top result.
Shimadzu provides methods of choice such
as: particle measurement, composition and
impurity analysis of raw materials and
compression rupture strength of particles
to check particle size and shape, detect
contaminations as well as ways to
dynamically measure deformation
characteristics of fine particles.
To prevent material and product failures,
it is important to test semi-finished
products such as rods and plates for defects
such as inclusions or voids. A range of
mechanical tests and physical
measurements provides the methods of
choice for determination of mechanical
properties and identification of defects.
Finished products, parts and
components have to assuredly withstand
real-life loads in order to provide reliability,
user protection, product safety and liability
112 SHOWCASE 2020 \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
1 // The Shimadzu
ultrasonic fatigue testing
system USF-2000A mean
stress configuration
2 // Detailed principle of
the Shimadzu ultrasonic
fatigue testing system USF-
2000A mean stress
3 // Stress and
displacement development
under loading of VHCF
specimen
protection. Static and fatigue testing
methods give manufacturers insights into
the capacities of components.
Selective laser melting (SLM) is a laser
AM process where parts are additive
manufactured using powder material with
the aid of laser energy. The manufactured
parts possess better or comparable yield
strength and tensile strength values when
compared to conventionally machined
parts, accompanied with a reduced
fracture strain.
A 3D CAD model is provided as input to
the SLM machine, which scans the
geometry after slicing it into 2D layers. The
laser energy selectively melts the powder
particles at the desired location of the
component to be manufactured. The
manufacturing capability of the SLM
process makes it suitable for aerospace,
automotive and biomedical applications.
Several alloys such as aluminum, titanium,
steel and nickel-based alloys have been
processed by the SLM technique. Although
fatigue strength diminishes for SLM
processed materials in the “as-built”
condition due to the process-inherent
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