T GE A new aluminium alloy for PBF-LB
Constellium Aheadd® CP1 alloy: Breakthrough productivity in PBF-LB Additive Manufacturing A collaborative study between Constellium SE, a global leader in aluminium materials headquartered in Paris, France, and a leading German AM research institute, has developed a new alloy which paves the way for cost-effective and high-performance AM components in series production. In this article, Constellium’s Dr Bechir Chehab and Syam Unnikrishnan present the company’s Aheadd® CP1 alloy, revealing cutting-edge productivity, very good mechanical properties, and the possibility to reduce Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) processing costs by up to 65%.
Day by day, the AM processing of aluminium components by Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) is being incrementally improved; however, so far, the current stateof-the-art solutions have resulted in only limited interest from OEMs because of technical and commercial challenges. One of the factors behind these challenges is that the majority of the popular PBF-LB aluminium alloy systems are modified versions of conventional alloys and, as such, they are not well suited to the Powder Bed Fusion process. These difficulties create significant limitations to scale up the production process and to qualify AM aluminium components for series production. Realising the bottlenecks and, as a response to customers' requests to develop suitable alloys for PBF-LB, Constellium has introduced a novel aluminium alloy, Aheadd® CP1, and a recent study highlights its potential for new AM designs and component-level cost reduction.
Vol. 8 No. 1 © 2022 Inovar Communications Ltd
Study outline During the initial phase of the study, Constellium set challenging targets, in terms of productivity, density, and mechanical properties. Work with Aheadd CP1 had previously shown glimpses of high productivity
combined with better properties in low and medium power PBF-LB machines, but the layer thickness had been limited to 60 µm. This new study was performed using an industrial scale SLM Solutions PBF-LB machine equipped with 1 kW laser power using inert
Layer thickness 150 µm, porosity < 0.03% YS 280 MPa, Elongation 12% Build rate 164 cm3/h
Study results
Pres study status
Layer thickness 60 µm, porosity < 0.02% YS 290 MPa, Elongation 14% Build rate 39 cm3/h
4X productivity 65% reduction in machine time No drop in properties Inert Gas atomised 20-63 µm powder
Fig. 1 The study provides an opportunity to develop cost-efficient and high-performance aluminium Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (LBF-PB) components in series production
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Spring 2022
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