Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components
Additive manufacturing (AM) of many traditional aluminum alloys is difficult due to hot cracking during cooling, which motivates investigating alternative AM methods that can mitigate this challenge. Here we demonstrate a new pneumatically driven molten metal jetting (MMJ) AM technique which uses a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Additive Manufacturing Letters |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000483 |
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| author | Eric S. Elton Kellen D. Traxel Andrew J. Pascall Jason R. Jeffries |
| author_facet | Eric S. Elton Kellen D. Traxel Andrew J. Pascall Jason R. Jeffries |
| author_sort | Eric S. Elton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Additive manufacturing (AM) of many traditional aluminum alloys is difficult due to hot cracking during cooling, which motivates investigating alternative AM methods that can mitigate this challenge. Here we demonstrate a new pneumatically driven molten metal jetting (MMJ) AM technique which uses a longer pressure pulse width to produce a jet of liquid metal that reaches the heated build plate. The “jet on demand” technique is utilized to build Al-6061 parts on heated build plates. Due to the large thermal mass contained in each jet, excellent adhesion is observed between droplets and layers while still maintaining dimensional control to produce parts with high relative densities (>98%). While as-printed parts exhibit different microstructure and hardness than traditional Al-6061, both microstructure and hardness are restored to traditionally processed values through a traditional T6 heat treatment. Microhardness values of 104 HV were obtained for printed Al-6061, which compares well to wrought properties. We observe that high build plate temperatures allow for lower solidification rates and eliminate hot cracking. These results point to a method for additively manufacturing traditional aluminum or other alloys that cannot currently be additively manufactured due to hot cracking. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ddb83afc0bf74ad3a61485e75f03a01f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2772-3690 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Additive Manufacturing Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-ddb83afc0bf74ad3a61485e75f03a01f2024-12-12T05:24:13ZengElsevierAdditive Manufacturing Letters2772-36902024-12-0111100240Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum componentsEric S. Elton0Kellen D. Traxel1Andrew J. Pascall2Jason R. Jeffries3Corresponding author.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore CA 94550, United StatesLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore CA 94550, United StatesLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore CA 94550, United StatesLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Ave, Livermore CA 94550, United StatesAdditive manufacturing (AM) of many traditional aluminum alloys is difficult due to hot cracking during cooling, which motivates investigating alternative AM methods that can mitigate this challenge. Here we demonstrate a new pneumatically driven molten metal jetting (MMJ) AM technique which uses a longer pressure pulse width to produce a jet of liquid metal that reaches the heated build plate. The “jet on demand” technique is utilized to build Al-6061 parts on heated build plates. Due to the large thermal mass contained in each jet, excellent adhesion is observed between droplets and layers while still maintaining dimensional control to produce parts with high relative densities (>98%). While as-printed parts exhibit different microstructure and hardness than traditional Al-6061, both microstructure and hardness are restored to traditionally processed values through a traditional T6 heat treatment. Microhardness values of 104 HV were obtained for printed Al-6061, which compares well to wrought properties. We observe that high build plate temperatures allow for lower solidification rates and eliminate hot cracking. These results point to a method for additively manufacturing traditional aluminum or other alloys that cannot currently be additively manufactured due to hot cracking.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000483Molten metal jettingAluminum alloysHot crackingDroplet printing |
| spellingShingle | Eric S. Elton Kellen D. Traxel Andrew J. Pascall Jason R. Jeffries Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components Additive Manufacturing Letters Molten metal jetting Aluminum alloys Hot cracking Droplet printing |
| title | Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components |
| title_full | Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components |
| title_fullStr | Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components |
| title_full_unstemmed | Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components |
| title_short | Jet on demand—A pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack-free aluminum components |
| title_sort | jet on demand a pneumatically driven molten metal jetting method for printing crack free aluminum components |
| topic | Molten metal jetting Aluminum alloys Hot cracking Droplet printing |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000483 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ericselton jetondemandapneumaticallydrivenmoltenmetaljettingmethodforprintingcrackfreealuminumcomponents AT kellendtraxel jetondemandapneumaticallydrivenmoltenmetaljettingmethodforprintingcrackfreealuminumcomponents AT andrewjpascall jetondemandapneumaticallydrivenmoltenmetaljettingmethodforprintingcrackfreealuminumcomponents AT jasonrjeffries jetondemandapneumaticallydrivenmoltenmetaljettingmethodforprintingcrackfreealuminumcomponents |