Recent Advancements in Customized Investment Castings Through Additive Manufacturing

2019 ◽

pp. 24-48

Author(s):

Sunpreet Singh ◽

Chander Prakash ◽

M. Uthayakumar

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Case Studies ◽

Investment Casting ◽

Mass Production ◽

Practical Importance ◽

Quality Characteristics ◽

Production Cycles

Conventional investment casting (IC) has suffered from numerous limitations such as rigidity of the process, longer production cycles, higher tooling cost, and waste during different manufacturing stages. With the invent of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, it is now possible to overcome the aforesaid issues along with additional benefits in terms of comparatively better quality characteristics of the resulting castings. The collaboration of AM and IC provided numerous avenues, specifically in biomedical, aerospace, and automobile sectors. AM technologies supported the IC process both in direct and indirect ways where these systems can be used for both job and mass production applications, respectively. In the chapter, the author will try to discuss the assistance of AM process to IC in detail. Each and every step to be followed will be supported with the practical findings, either by the contributing author or published somewhere else. Moreover, some of the case studies will be discussed in detail to highlight the practical importance of the duo.

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Design, Materials, and Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing in Circular Economy Contexts: From Waste to New Products

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13137269 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 7269

Author(s):

Alessia Romani ◽

Valentina Rognoli ◽

Marinella Levi

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Case Studies ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Academic Research ◽

Design Strategies ◽

Academic Context ◽

Application Fields ◽

Research And Design ◽

Specific Contribution ◽

New Strategies

The transition toward circular economy models has been progressively promoted in the last few years. Different disciplines and strategies may significantly support this change. Although the specific contribution derived from design, material science, and additive manufacturing is well-established, their interdisciplinary relationship in circular economy contexts is relatively unexplored. This paper aims to review the main case studies related to new circular economy models for waste valorization through extrusion-based additive manufacturing, circular materials, and new design strategies. The general patterns were investigated through a comprehensive analysis of 74 case studies from academic research and design practice in the last six-year period (2015–2021), focusing on the application fields, the 3D printing technologies, and the materials. Further considerations and future trends were then included by looking at the relevant funded projects and case studies of 2021. A broader number of applications, circular materials, and technologies were explored by the academic context, concerning the practice-based scenario linked to more consolidated fields. Thanks to the development of new strategies and experiential tools, academic research and practice can be linked to foster new opportunities to implement circular economy models.

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System framework of adopting additive manufacturing in mass production line

Enterprise Information Systems ◽

10.1080/17517575.2021.1931461 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-24

Author(s):

Zhuming Bi ◽

Guoping Wang ◽

Joel Thompson ◽

David Ruiz ◽

John Rosswurm ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Mass Production ◽

Production Line ◽

System Framework

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Measuring the Complexity of Additive Manufacturing Supply Chains

Volume 2: Additive Manufacturing; Materials ◽

10.1115/msec2017-2871 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Ardeshir Raihanian Mashhadi ◽

Sara Behdad

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Product Complexity ◽

Information Theoretic ◽

Manufacturing Method ◽

Management Domain ◽

Information Theoretic Measures ◽

Production Cycles ◽

Supply Planning

Complexity has been one of the focal points of attention in the supply chain management domain, as it deteriorates the performance of the supply chain and makes controlling it problematic. The complexity of supply chains has been significantly increased over the past couple of decades. Meanwhile, Additive Manufacturing (AM) not only revolutionizes the way that the products are made, but also brings a paradigm shift to the whole production system. The influence of AM extends to product design and supply chain as well. The unique capabilities of AM suggest that this manufacturing method can significantly affect the supply chain complexity. More product complexity and demand heterogeneity, faster production cycles, higher levels of automation and shorter supply paths are among the features of additive manufacturing that can directly influence the supply chain complexity. Comparison of additive manufacturing supply chain complexity to its traditional counterpart requires a profound comprehension of the transformative effects of AM on the supply chain. This paper first extracts the possible effects of AM on the supply chain and then tries to connect these effects to the drivers of complexity under three main categories of 1) market, 2) manufacturing technology, and 3) supply, planning and infrastructure. Possible impacts of additive manufacturing adoption on the supply chain complexity have been studied using information theoretic measures. An Agent-based Simulation (ABS) model has been developed to study and compare two different supply chain configurations. The findings of this study suggest that the adoption of AM can decrease the supply chain complexity, particularly when product customization is considered.

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Macro-, meso- and microstructural characterization of metallic lattice structures manufactured by additive manufacturing assisted investment casting

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-84524-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

V. H. Carneiro ◽

S. D. Rawson ◽

H . Puga ◽

P. J. Withers

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Investment Casting ◽

A356 Alloy ◽

Microstructural Characterization ◽

Lattice Structures ◽

Secondary Phases ◽

Micro Computed Tomography ◽

Fused Filament Fabrication ◽

Promising Alternative ◽

Heterogeneous Microstructures

AbstractCellular materials are recognized for their high specific mechanical properties, making them desirable in ultra-lightweight applications. Periodic lattices have tunable properties and may be manufactured by metallic additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. However, AM can lead to issues with un-melted powder, macro/micro porosity, dimensional control and heterogeneous microstructures. This study overcomes these problems through a novel technique, combining additive manufacturing and investment casting to produce detailed investment cast lattice structures. Fused filament fabrication is used to fabricate a pattern used as the mold for the investment casting of aluminium A356 alloy into high-conformity thin-ribbed (~ 0.6 mm thickness) scaffolds. X-ray micro-computed tomography (CT) is used to characterize macro- and meso-scale defects. Optical and scanning electron (SEM) microscopies are used to characterize the microstructure of the cast structures. Slight dimensional (macroscale) variations originate from the 3D printing of the pattern. At the mesoscale, the casting process introduces very fine (~ 3 µm) porosity, along with small numbers of (~ 25 µm) gas entrapment defects in the horizontal struts. At a microstructural level, both the (~ 70 μm) globular/dendritic grains and secondary phases show no significant variations across the lattices. This method is a promising alternative means for producing highly detailed non-stochastic metallic cellular lattices and offers scope for further improvement through refinement of filament fabrication.

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Additive Manufacturing Systems for Medical Applications: Case Studies

Additive Manufacturing – Developments in Training and Education ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-76084-1_13 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 187-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Henrique Amorim Almeida ◽

Ana Filipa Costa ◽

Carina Ramos ◽

Carlos Torres ◽

Mauricio Minondo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Case Studies ◽

Manufacturing Systems ◽

Medical Applications

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Additive Manufacturing Validation Methods, Technology Transfer Based on Case Studies

Additive Manufacturing – Developments in Training and Education ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-76084-1_7 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 99-112

Author(s):

Iñigo Flores Ituarte ◽

Niklas Kretzschmar ◽

Sergei Chekurov ◽

Jouni Partanen ◽

Jukka Tuomi

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Technology Transfer ◽

Case Studies ◽

Validation Methods

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Comparing Environmental Impacts of Additive Manufacturing vs. Investment Casting for the Production of a Shroud for Gas Turbine

10.1115/gt2021-59640 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Angela Serra ◽

Martina Malarco ◽

Alessandro Musacchio ◽

Giulio Buia ◽

Pietro Bartocci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Investment Casting ◽

Gas Turbines ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Base Material ◽

Small Scale ◽

Atomization Process ◽

Traditional Manufacturing

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM hereinafter) is revolutionizing prototyping production and even small-scale manufacturing. Usually it is assumed that AM has lower environmental impact, compared to traditional manufacturing processes, but there have been no comprehensive environmental life-cycle assessment studies confirming this, especially for the gas turbines (GT hereinafter) and turbomachinery sector. In this study the core processes performed at Baker Hughes site in Florence are considered, together with the powder production via atomization process to describe the overall environmental impact of a GT shroud produced through additive manufacturing and comparing it with traditional investment casting production process. Particular attention is given to materials production and logistics. The full component life cycle starts from the extraction of raw materials during mining, their fusion and, as said, the atomization process, the powders are transported to the gas turbines production site where they are used as base material in additive manufacturing, also machining and finishing processes are analyzed as they differ for a component produced by AM respect to one produced by traditional investment casting. From the analysis of the data obtained, it emerges that the AM process has better performances in terms of sustainability than the Investment casting (IC hereinafter), highlighted above all by a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG hereinafter) of over 40%.

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