Numéro : 2823 - Year : 2025
Reuse of INCONEL® 625 for laser powder bed fusion in metal additive manufacturing for naval equipment manufacturing
Léandra HEREIL, Carole ERNY, Charlotte METTON - Naval Group – Ruelle-sur-Touvre (France), Véronique GAUTHIER-BRUNET, Sylvain DUBOIS - Institut P’ – Poitiers (France)
Since the end of 20th century, interest in additive manufacturing has intensified. Also named 3D Printing, this technology is usually selected to produce three-dimensional parts by bonding successive layers of materials directly from a computer-aided design. Seven families of processes have been developed, each adapted to specific materials (type and state), energy source and applications. Powder bed additive manufacturing is one of them. More specifically, the process studied is Laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M [1]). It is renowned for its ability to produce near-net-shape, complex and optimised parts.
The nickel-based superalloy Inconel® 625 is increasingly studied using PBF-LB/M. In fact, the advantages of this material make it very attractive for producing parts capable of withstanding extreme environments. For this study, the material is used in the state of gas atomised powders.
At the end of the build production, the piece is surrounded by unmelted powder due to localised melting of the material. The question of what happens to the unmelted powder fraction remains. Reusing the powder has proved to be a more economical and environmentally friendly solution, particularly because of the reduction in wastage of the raw material, but also because of the lower quantity of toxic waste to be processed. However, this powder is present during the various manufacturing processes and is therefore subject to the effects of thermal gradients and any pollution that may degrade its quality. These changes in the characteristics of the powder and the powder bed can therefore alter the properties of the produced parts.
This report presents the study of the issues involved in reusing Inconel® 625 in the production of naval equipment using laser melting on a powder bed.
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