[T1] Powder Production

[15C-T1-26] An Advanced Dynamic Material-to-Process Analysis to Enhance Resource Efficiency for Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing

*E. Rahimi¹, R. Higham¹, N. Parry², L. Ingleson¹ (1.Additive Manufacturing Solutions Ltd., UK, 2.Materials Processing Institute, UK)

Keywords:Powder Characterisation, Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Powder Reusability, AM Resource Efficiency

This research is a part of a series of studies aimed at introducing a versatile, commercial, predictive material reuse management tool enabling laser powder bed fusion to be used more resource efficiently. The current powder characterisation approach is based on the static analysis, providing limited data on powder re-processability. The Morflow index that links powder morphology and undersized ratio to repose angle and cohesiveness has previously been discussed at World PM 2022 and Euro PM 2023. In this study, the index has been further developed to incorporate advanced correlations between other physical/chemical characteristics and product properties (Morflow 2.0) and a new physical predictive tool was then developed proposing a reusability strategy for L-PBF users. The strategy provides instructions for process parameters, powder blending and post-processing to maximise efficiency and sustainability. The strategy will then be followed by building an artificial intelligence platform to be used for daily process (SMART-APP).