Design and Post Processing for Metal Additive Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) of metals has been receiving particular attention because functional, net shape parts in various industrial sectors can now be fabricated using laser, electron beam or binder jetting methods. Furthermore, recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) techniques offer many opportunities in terms of design freedom. Complex geometries like cellular solids, metamaterials or biomimetic materials that could not be easily manufactured using conventional techniques are now relatively easy to be manufactured using AM. Today, these objects can be fabricated from elemental or alloyed metallic powders, based on the computer-aided design (CAD) models. This Special Issue is open to submissions concerning, but not limited to, design of elements with predicted microstructure and mechanical properties, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) in AM, numerical algorithms for AM and µ-CT imagining for quality control. Despite the fact that AM manufacturing in a powder bed provides a possibility to fabricate objects of any shape in one production step, it also carries some disadvantages. One drawback is the requirement to generate support for the fabricated parts. Such support should dissipate the heat generated during 3D printing process from metallic powders and minimize geometrical distortions induced by internal stresses. The computer simulations and improved fabrication protocols that decrease these issues will be covered in this Special Issue. During the AM processes, not all particles are melted and, therefore, the removal of any unmelted particles needs to be performed with mechanical or chemical post-processing methods. This Special Issue is, therefore, dedicated to the various areas of research relevant to metal AM. The processing parameters and post-processing methods not limited to annealing and chemical modifications are of interest. Finally, the design of materials dedicated to metal AM and description of modifications to commercial machines are also welcome in the submissions.

Dr. Bartłomiej Wysocki
Prof. Joseph Buhagiar
Dr. Tomasz Durejko
Guest Editors

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