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Powder Bed Fusion Processes

Powder bed fusion (PBF) is an additive manufacturing process where a thermal source like a laser or electron beam selectively fuses powdered material layer by layer. PBF was the first commercialized AM process, with selective laser sintering developed at UT Austin. In PBF, a roller spreads a thin layer of powder over the build area, then a laser scans and fuses the powder in the cross-section shape. This repeats layer by layer until the final part is complete. PBF can process many materials like polymers, metals, ceramics and composites if they can be melted and re-solidified.

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246 views10 pages

Powder Bed Fusion Processes

Powder bed fusion (PBF) is an additive manufacturing process where a thermal source like a laser or electron beam selectively fuses powdered material layer by layer. PBF was the first commercialized AM process, with selective laser sintering developed at UT Austin. In PBF, a roller spreads a thin layer of powder over the build area, then a laser scans and fuses the powder in the cross-section shape. This repeats layer by layer until the final part is complete. PBF can process many materials like polymers, metals, ceramics and composites if they can be melted and re-solidified.

Uploaded by

himanshu singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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POWDER BED BASED

AM PROCESS
POWDER BED BASED AM PROCESS

• Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is layer by layer addition of material by the


use of a thermal source to melt and fuse powder particles to a
prescribed region of each layer.

• The most common thermal sources for PBF are Lasers and Electron
beam.

• PBF processes were the first commercialized Additive Manufacturing


process, developed at the university of Texas at Austin, USA. Selective
Laser Sintering(SLS) was the first commercialized PBF Process.

• All other PBF processes modify this basic approach in one or more
ways to:
• enable machine productivity,
• enable different materials to be processed, and
• to avoid specific patented features.

I. Gibson l D. W. Rosen l B. Stucker, Additive Manufacturing Technologies- 3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing, Springer, 2nd
edition.
POWDER BED BASED AM PROCESS

• Laser Sintering Processes were originally developed to produce plastic


prototypes using a point-wise laser scanning technique.

• This approach was subsequently extended to metal and ceramic powders


with additional thermal sources(multiple sources) and variants of layer-
wise fusion of powdered materials are being commercially introduced.

• PBF processes are widely used worldwide, have a broad range of


materials (including polymers, metals, ceramics, and composites) which
can be utilized, and are increasingly being used for direct manufacturing of
end-use products, as the material properties are comparable to many
engineering-grade polymers, metals, and ceramics.

• All PBF processes involve the spreading of the powder material over
previous layers. There are different mechanisms to enable this, including a
roller or a blade.
Powder Bed Fusion – Step by Step

1. A layer, typically 0.1mm thick of material is spread over the build platform.

2. A laser fuses the first layer or first cross section of the model.

3. A new layer of powder is spread across the previous layer using a roller.

4. Further layers or cross sections are fused and added.

5. The process repeats until the entire model is created. Loose, unfused
powder remains in position but is removed during post processing.

6. The fabricated parts are removed from bed, loose powder is cleaned off and
further finishing operation are performed, if necessary.

The part building process takes place inside an enclosed chamber filled with
nitrogen or inert gas to minimize oxidation and degradation of the powdered
material.
Schematic of a typical PBF process
Materials for PBF process
• All materials that can be melted and re-solidified can be used in this process.

 Polymers and PMC(Polymer matrix composites)


• Thermoset polymers can’t be used in PBF process, because it does not melt
instead it degrades, as their temperatures is increased.

• Thermoplastic materials are well-suited for PBF because of:


a) Low melting temperature
b) Low thermal conductivities
c) Low tendency for balling

• Thermoplastics are classified in two groups in terms of their crystallinity i.e., -


Crystalline (have distinct melting point) & Amorphous (have wide range of
melting point)
• Polyamide(Nylon) is the most common thermoplastic material used in PBF
process, Most of the polyamides have high crystallinity, hence they have
distinct melting point that enable them suitable for PBF.

• Amorphous polymers tend to sinter into highly porous shapes(due to wide


range of melting temp.), whereas crystalline polymers tend to sinter using
full melting, which results in high densities.

• Polystyrene-based materials are used for making sacrificial pattern for


investment casting using laser sintering process.
• Elastomeric thermoplastic polymers can be used for producing highly flexible
parts. E.g- gaskets, industrial seal, shoe soles, etc.

• Polycaprolactone (PCL), Polylactide (PLA), Poly-L-lactide(PLLA) are several


biocompatible and biodegradable polymers that can be processed using PBF
process.

• Different composite polymers like PCL with Ceramic particles, Carbon fibers
can also be fabricated through PBF process.

Parts fabricated by Polyamide-11 Hammel et.al(2014), Ceramic International.


https://www.tctmagazine.com/tctblogs/guest-blogs/polyamide-
11-the-high-performance-material-of-choice-for-pro/
 Metals and MMC(Metal matrix composites)
• Generally, any metal that can be welded is considered to be a good
candidate for PBF processing.

• Several types of steels, typically stainless and tool steels, titanium and its
alloys, nickel-base alloys, some aluminum alloys, and cobalt-chrome have
been processed and are commercially available in some form.

• The alloys that crack under high solidification rates are not good candidate
for laser sintering process.

• Due to high solidification rate in metal laser sintering/melting process, the


crystal structures produced and mechanical properties are different than
those for other manufacturing processes.

• These are metastable and heat treatment is needed to produce part with
standard mechanical and metallurgical properties.
 Ceramic and Ceramic Composites
• Several metal oxides, carbides and nitrides can also be fabricated using
PBF process. Eg.- Aluminum Oxide, Titanium oxide, Silicon Carbide, etc.

• Several ceramic Biocompatible materials are also developed for specific


application. Eg.- Calcium Hydroxyapatite, Tri-calcium phosphate are
materials very similar to human bone has been processed through PBF
process for medical application.

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