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Metal Additive Manufacturing for Space: Processes, Properties and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Additive Manufacturing Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2022) | Viewed by 3235

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
IEIIT-CNR, Turin, Piedmont, Italy
Interests: waveguide components; high power feed system; additive-manufacturing-oriented design; numerical methods

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Guest Editor
Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Interests: additive manufacturing; laser powder bed fusion process; design for additive manufacturing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Piemonte, Italy
Interests: additive manufacturing; laser powder bed fusion; selective laser melting; aluminum alloys

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions to the Special Issue on Metal Additive Manufacturing for Space: Processes, Properties and Applications.

Additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized the building process in different aresa of our society. The range of application spans from medicine to aerospace. In the field of space applications, AM is a strategic technology with particular relevance in the building of metallic parts. Products such as satellite systems represent, indeed, a challenging category from an engineering design perspective, and at the same time, they are produced in small batches. AM allows for weight and material volume minimization, which are ideal drivers in costly products to be produced in low production volumes. At the same time, from a design perspective, AM represents a radically new way of manufacturing. This geometrical freedom in design can be utilized to improve the functionality of series products by substituting conventional assembled parts with AM non-assembled ones. In this framework, the microwave/antenna community has shown increasing interest in the last decade in the application of this technology for the manufacturing of high-performance microwave devices. It is worth noting that the enhancement of the quality of the final product realized by AM depends on the starting material. This, then, has pushed the research of new materials specifically developed for metallic AM technologies, such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), due to the extreme rapid melting and subsequent cooling of the alloys during the process. An example of new high strength aluminum alloys designed for AM and patented recently are Scalmalloy® by APWORKS (Airbus) and A20X™, by Aluminium Materials Technologies (ALTANA Group). The final surface roughness of metallic AM components represents an open issue for specific application, such as antenna components. Different postprocess treatments can be considered to be used with complex shapes and internal channels, such as micro shot peening, abrasive flow machining, and electropolishing. Therefore, assessment of different metal AM approaches has already started and will consider the whole process, from the design to the material supply, characterization, processing, and postprocessing.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in the fields of the metal additive manufacturing process, material properties and applications for space including microwave components, and mechanical structures. Both theoretical and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive review and survey papers.

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Addamo
Prof. Dr. Flaviana Calignano
Prof. Dr. Diego Manfredi
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • metal additive manufacturing
  • space application
  • lightweight
  • non assembly components
  • laser powder bed fusion
  • rapid solidification
  • aluminum alloys
  • Scalmalloy®
  • A20X™
  • titanium alloys
  • surface finishing
  • micro shot peening
  • abrasive flow machining
  • electropolishing
  • feed chain microwave component
  • 3D printing metal antenna parts

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 14589 KiB  
Article
Ti6Al4V-ELI Alloy Manufactured via Laser Powder-Bed Fusion and Heat-Treated below and above the β-Transus: Effects of Sample Thickness and Sandblasting Post-Process
by Emanuela Cerri, Emanuele Ghio and Giovanni Bolelli
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(11), 5359; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12115359 - 25 May 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2351
Abstract
Ti6Al4V-ELI is the most-used lightweight alloy in the aerospace industrial sector thanks to its high mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. The present paper aims, firstly, to evaluate the effects induced by different heat treatments, which were performed above and below the β-transus temperature [...] Read more.
Ti6Al4V-ELI is the most-used lightweight alloy in the aerospace industrial sector thanks to its high mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. The present paper aims, firstly, to evaluate the effects induced by different heat treatments, which were performed above and below the β-transus temperature on Ti6Al4V-ELI samples manufactured via Laser Powder-Bed Fusion in different orientations (XZ, XY, Z and 45°). The first set of tensile samples and bars were heat-treated at 1050 °C × 1 h, while the second and third set were heat-treated at 704 °C × 120′ following the AMS2801 standard specification, and at 740 °C × 130′. These heat treatments were chosen to improve the as-built mechanical properties according to the ASTM F3001 and also ASTM F2924-14 standard specifications. Optical and SEM measurements reveal primary, secondary and tertiary α-laths below the β-transus, while above this temperature, the microstructure varies in relation to the sample’s thickness. Secondly, this work analyzed the results obtained after a sandblasting process, which was performed on half of all the available heat-treated tensile samples, through XRD and Vickers microhardness measurements. XRD analysis also highlighted the presence of α2-Ti3Al and TiAl3 precipitates and the microstructural change in terms of the α-phase. Full article
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