On Direct Metal Laser Sintering of Functionally Graded Material with Virgin and Mixed Powder

• Published in: Arabian journal for science and engineering (2011) Vol. 49; no. 8; pp. 11857 - 11870
• Main Authors: Kalia, Bharat, Singh, Rupinder, Pabla, B. S., Dureja, Mritunjay
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical materials; Body fluids; Corrosion tests; Corrosive wear; Engineering; Functionally gradient materials; Humanities and Social Sciences; In vitro methods and tests; Laser sintering; Metal powders; multidisciplinary; Precipitation hardening steels; Science; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Stainless steels; Surface properties; Surface roughness; Technical Note-Mechanical Engineering; Meta-structure; In vitro analysis; Four-dimensional characteristics; Direct metal laser sintering; Functionally graded material
• ISSN: 2193-567X; 1319-8025; 2191-4281
• DOI: 10.1007/s13369-023-08347-x

In the recent past, several studies were reported on meta-structure-based direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) of functionally graded materials (FGM) using virgin/recycled metallic powders. But hitherto little has been reported on DMLS of meta-structure-based FGM using a combination of virgin and mixed metallic powder with a single hopper. This study outlines the use of virgin/single and mixed metallic powder for fabricating FGM using DMLS with a single hopper. The study highlights the DMLS of FGM with 17–4 precipitate hardened (PH) stainless steel (SS) virgin powder in a sandwich layer as ‘Weaire–Phelan’ meta-structure and mixed powder (comprising of 17–4 PH SS (90% by wt.)-Ni-625 (5% by wt.)–Ti–6Al–4V (5% by wt.) collected as waste/mixed powder from DMLS setup) as the top and bottom layers. Results suggested that the surface roughness (Ra) of 3D-printed (by DMLS) FGM was 12.66 µm, 19.85 µm, and 12.41 µm for the top, middle, and bottom layers, respectively. The Ra was improved to 8.59 µm, 12.35 µm, and 8.67 µm after wear testing. Further, after corrosion (in vitro) testing in simulated body fluid, Ra was observed as 13.36 µm, 14.44 µm, and 13.46 µm, respectively. Overall, the wear and corrosive behavior have shown tuneable 4D characteristics for required surface properties in biomedical applications. The results are supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis.