High Power Laser Beam Melting of Ti6 Al4 V on Formed Sheet Metal to achieve Hybrid structures

Motivated by the desire to combine the advantages of two manufacturing concepts, namely Additive Manufacturing and sheet metal forming, the concept of hybrid processes emerged. Laser Beam Melting process with its characteristic layer by layer fabrication methodology has already been proved to be successful in fabricating fully dense 3D structures with micro sized Ti-6Al-4V powder. The presented research focuses on direct fabrication of Ti-6Al-4V Additive Structures on a thin pre-formed Ti-6Al-4V sheet metal substrate. In the state of the art Laser Beam Melting process, fabrication of solid structures is done on a support structure attached to a thick conventionally manufactured base plate. The state of the art process also uses a 200 degrees C pre-heating of the fabrication platform in order to reduce the effect of heat induced stresses on the fabricated structures. Within the hybrid fabrication concept, 3D structures are directly fabricated on a thin sheet metal and the thermodynamic conditions are significantly different in comparison to the conventional process. The research aims at understanding the fundamental aspects of the interaction between the formed sheet metal and additive structure determines the corresponding mechanical characteristics. The interaction process during the fabrication exposes the alloy locally to non-optimum thermal cycles and the research therefore aims to understand the various influencing factors involved during the fabrication process. The system technology modifications required to achieve the aimed fabrication are also discussed in the presented research.