Swansea Additive Manufacturing Research

The Swansea Additive Manufacturing Research (SAMR) group have been developing a track record since 2013 in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (a metal-based additive layer manufacturing process) over the past five years, exemplified by a number of publications [1]–[14].

The SAMR laboratories house two new Renishaw machines (an AM400 and REN500), as well as manufacturing support equipment such as a hot isostatic press, an Electric Discharge Machine and Coordinate measurement Machines, jointly worth in excess of £2M and funded by WEFO on projects such as ASTUTE and M2A and by the College of Engineering.

The group have collaborated on prestigious European projects such as the AMAZE (Additive Manufacturing for Zero Waste) FP7 project. It is currently made up of 5-6 post-doctoral researchers partly funded on Welsh Government projects such as the £1.4 MACH1 COMET project to develop new powder metals such as high entropy alloys, as well as projects with the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Laser-based Production Processes (£100K) and Innovate UK projects (£0.5M) with a variety of companies.

The team is complimented by 7-8 post graduate PhD/EngD students at various stages of completion sponsored by industry (Renishaw/Qioptiq), and funded through the Manufacturing and Materials Academy. Recent publications include papers in the area of additive manufacturing presented at international conferences such as the TMS 2016 [15], [16], TMS 2018 [5], and SFF 2017 (Solid Freeform Fabrication) symposium [12]–[14], with the paper by Mr Stuart Sillars awarded best paper of the conference and published in a special edition of Virtual and Physical Prototyping, [4].

In terms of the standard alloys which have been used by the group, these also include standard alloys such as Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V), steels (316L, 17-4PH …), cobalt-chrome alloys (Co-Cr-Mo/W), aluminium alloys (AlSi10Mg, AlSi7Mg) and INVAR (Fe36Ni). Work in the coming years will revolve around development and optimisation of nickel alloys (IN718 and IN625), tool steels (H10-H11-H13, 13-8PHMo) and duplex stainless steels (SAF2205, SAF2507). Some new hard wearing tungsten alloys are also going to be considered.

• Renishaw AM400 – 400W with 250mm³ build volume Includes a reduced build volume (80X80X55mm) used for new alloy powder development
• Renishaw REN500 – 500W laser system with 250mm³ build volume
• Hot Isostatic Press – In process of commissioning
• CMM – Coordinate Measurement Machine
• EDM – Electric Discharge machining
• Vibratory Trough for part finishing
• ESI-AM Software for multiscale simulation of the powder bed process
• Wide range of thermo-mechanical testing available through MACH1

• AMAZE (FP7)
• COMET (Welsh Government/Welsh European Funding Office)
• LASER SIM (EPSRC)
• ASTUTE (Welsh European Funding Office)
• M2A (Welsh European Funding Office)
• MACH1 (Welsh Government/Welsh European Funding Office)
• INNOVATE UK (Zeal)

N. P. Lavery, S. G. R. Brown, J. Sienz, and J. Cherry, “A review of Computational Modelling of Additive Layer Manufacturing – multi-scale and multi-physics,” in Sustainable Design and Manufacturing, 2014, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 651–673.

J. A. Cherry, H. M. Davies, S. Mehmood, N. P. Lavery, S. G. R. Brown, and J. Sienz, “Investigation into the effect of process parameters on microstructural and physical properties of 316L stainless steel parts by selective laser melting,” Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., vol. 76, no. 5–8, pp. 869–879, 2014.

N. P. Lavery, J. Cherry, S. Mehmood, H. Davies, B. Girling, E. Sackett, S. G. R. Brown, and J. Sienz, “Effects of hot isostatic pressing on the elastic modulus and tensile properties of 316L parts made by powder bed laser fusion,” Mater. Sci. Eng. A, vol. 693, no. March, pp. 186–213, 2017.

S. A. Sillars, C. J. Sutcliffe, A. M. Philo, S. G. R. Brown, J. Sienz, and N. P. Lavery, “The three-prong method: a novel assessment of residual stress in laser powder bed fusion,” Virtual Phys. Prototyp., vol. 13, no. 1, 2018.

A. M. Philo, D. Butcher, C. J. Sutcliffe, J. Sienz, S. G. R. Brown, and N. P. Lavery, “A Multiphase CFD Model for the Prediction of Particulate Accumulation in a Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process,” in 2018 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition - CFD Modeling and Simulation in Materials Processing, 2018, pp. 1–9.

A. M. Philo, S. Mehraban, M. Holmes, S. Sillars, C. J. Sutcliffe, J. Sienz, S. G. R. Brown, and N. P. Lavery, “A Pragmatic Continuum Level Model for the Prediction of the Onset of Keyholing in Laser Powder Bed Fusion,” Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 2018.

A. Philo, N. P. Lavery, S. G. R. Brown, J. Cherry, J. Sienz, J. Joannou, and C. J. Sutcliffe, “Comparison and Validation of Gas Flow Models in a Powder Bed Selective Laser Melting Process,” in 23rd UK Conference of the Association for Computational Mechanics in Engineering, 2015, no. April, pp. 189–192.

A. M. Philo, S. G. R. Brown, J. Cherry, J. Sienz, and N. P. Lavery, “Effects of Hatch Pattern and Laser Parameters on the Multi-Scale Thermal Modelling of Selective Laser Melting,” in 23rd UK Conference of the Association for Computational Mechanics in Engineering, 2015, no. April, pp. 453–456.

[E. R. Williams, E. B. Brousseau, N. P. Lavery, S. Mehraban, V. L. Keast, C. E. Hughes, and K. D. M. Harris, “Nanosecond Laser Milling of the Amorphous Alloy Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5,” in Proceedings of the 4M/IWMF2016 Conference, 2016, pp. 199–202.

M. A. Kearns, K. Murray, S. Brown, I. M. Cameron, J. Evans, J. Sienz, and N. P. Lavery, “On the Influence of Powder-Aging Characteristics on Selected Laser Melting Performance of 316L Stainless Steel,” in Additive Manufacturing with Powder Metallurgy, 2016.

E. Williams and N. Lavery, “Laser processing of bulk metallic glass: A review,” J. Mater. Process. Technol., vol. 247, pp. 73–91, 2017.

S. Sillars, C. J. Sutcliffe, A. Philo, J. Sienz, S. Brown, and N. Lavery, “The Assessment of Residual Stress in Powder Bed Fusion Components Using a Novel Residual Stress Analysis Component, the Three-Prong Method,” in Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2017.

A. M. Philo, C. J. Sutcliffe, J. Sienz, N. P. Lavery, B. Campus, C. Burrows, B. Hill, A. Manufacturing, P. Division, and W. Park, “A STUDY INTO THE EFFECTS OF GAS FLOW INLET DESIGN OF THE RENISHAW AM250 LASER POWDER BED FUSION MACHINE USING COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING,” in Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2017.

S. S. Milward, H. Swygart, L. Eccles, S. G. R. Brown, and N. P. Lavery, “CONTROLLING THERMAL EXPANSION WITH LATTICE STRUCTURES USING LASER POWDER BED FUSION,” in Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2017.

H. Mindt, M. Megahed, N. P. Lavery, A. Giordimaina, and S. G. R. Brown, “Verification of Numerically Calculated Cooling Rates of Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing,” in TMS 2016, 2016, pp. 205–212.

H. W. Mindt, M. Megahed, N. P. Lavery, M. A. Holmes, and S. G. R. Brown, “Powder Bed Layer Characteristics: The Overseen First-Order Process Input,” Metall. Mater. Trans. A Phys. Metall. Mater. Sci., vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 3811–3822, 2016.

K. Murray, M. A. Kearns, N. P. Lavery, and J. Evans, “A Study of the Influence of Powder Ageing Characteristics on AlSi10Mg Aluminum Processed by Laser Based Powder Bed Fusion,” in RAPID + TCT 2018, 2018.

M. A. Kearns, K. Murray, N. P. Lavery, and J. Evans, “Characterisation of AlSiMg Alloy Powders Developed for Use in Powder Bed Fusion Processes and Corresponding As-Built Part Properties,” in AMPM 2018, 2018.

K. Murray, M. A. Kearns, P. Davies, N. P. Lavery, S. G. R. Brown, J. Sienz, I. Cameron, J. Evans, and S. Sillars, “The Influence of Powder Ageing Characteristics on 316L Stainless Steel processed by Laser based Powder Bed Fusion,” in EuroPM2017, 2017.

M. Johnston, M. A. Kearns, and J. Evans, “Investigation of the effects of recycling 316l powder on consistency and properties of parts made by selective laser melting,” in AMPM 2017, 2017.