ICME Manufacturability Assessment in Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing

Powder bed fusion (PBF) of titanium alloys is an interesting manufacturing route for many applications requiring light weight and strength combined with geometric complexity. Managing PBF challenges, including porosity, surface finish, distortions and residual stresses of as-built material, is mandatory to bring the advantages of this process to production main stream. This paper builds on previous work addressing process parameter optimization to focus on manufacturability analysis of complex shapes. Simulation of the build process predicts layer for layer distortion as well as the final component shape. Validation is pursued to ensure accuracy before proceeding with analysis of different build strategies for a complex component.