Researchers on the Johns Hopkins Utilized Physics Laboratory (APL) are working with the Naval Sea Methods Command (NAVSEA) to deal with reliability considerations with steel additive manufacturing for protection purposes. The collaboration focuses on laser powder mattress fusion expertise, demonstrating that correct management measures can produce constant, high-quality supplies. APL’s analysis has proven that exact administration of course of parameters can get rid of porosity points that beforehand created skepticism about 3D printing for crucial parts.
The analysis workforce has carried out in depth testing evaluating materials properties throughout a number of distributors and inspecting long-term sturdiness of additively manufactured elements. “What we’ve proven by means of rigorous analysis is that so long as you management your feedstock, course of parameters and post-processing, you will get extremely constant materials properties,” stated Michael Presley, an additive manufacturing engineer at APL. This work has helped scale back NAVSEA’s machine certification necessities by over 60% whereas sustaining reliability requirements.
One in all NAVSEA’s major challenges has been making certain uniform high quality throughout completely different distributors and manufacturing environments. Justin Rettaliata, NAVSEA’s technical lead for additive manufacturing, famous: “We don’t simply want additive manufacturing to work — it wants it to work predictably. To scale up, we want a mature industrial base that may produce additively manufactured elements at constant high quality ranges throughout distributors and environments.” APL’s analysis has straight influenced NAVSEA’s manufacturing requirements and certification pointers.
The expertise has already demonstrated sensible worth in upkeep situations. In a single case, when a Navy ship skilled a part failure, APL helped reverse-engineer and 3D print a substitute half in simply 5 days, in comparison with the normal procurement timeline of six months to 2 years. “Lowering logistics delay time from months to days is a game-changer for operational availability,” stated James Borghardt, program supervisor for Maritime Expeditionary Logistics at APL.
Whereas additive manufacturing has confirmed priceless for repairs, researchers are working towards implementing the expertise within the preliminary design of mission-critical techniques. Eddie Gienger, who labored on the analysis, defined the importance: “The anticipated service lifetime of a Virginia-class submarine is 33 years. NAVSEA will need to have confidence within the lifespan of additively constructed parts in comparison with these manufactured with conventional processes.” The continuing analysis goals to construct this confidence for broader adoption of additive manufacturing in naval purposes.
Supply: jhuapl.edu
