Additive manufacturing, in which a part is built up rather than machined down, is being rapidly implemented in areas to meet a need for low volume production of complex parts. A variety of heat sources can be used including laser, electron beam, or arc. Unique to each is the local environment as well as heat flux transferred to the feedstock. Feedstock utilized includes powders ranging from 45 to 100 micron in diameter as well as diameter wire ranging from 635 to 1200 micron. Processes range from powder bed to blown powder to wire fed. Changes in the feedstock size, energy source, and feedstock chemistry have an effect on the resulting rapidly solidified microstructures formed. This makes decisions for heat treatments of these alloys challenging. The only guidelines to use in the heat treatments of precipitation hardened alloys such as Inconel 718 are those developed for wrought or cast materials. However, neither of these heat treatments addresses how to optimize heat treatments for the rapidly cooled microstructures whose chemistries and microstructure may vary from either wrought or cast microstructures. This presentation will discuss methodologies to develop heat treatments specifically for components produced using additively manufactured processes.
BioSketch
Dr. Schneider received the Ph.D. degree in 1996 and the M.S. degree in 1993with a concentration on Materials Science, from the University of California at Davis. She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in 1977. After receiving her B.S. degree, and prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Schneider worked for 16 years on the design and verification of prototype devices for the Aerospace and Biomedical Industries. Success of these devices was extremely dependent on both the material selection and processing methods used.
After completing her graduate degrees, Schneider worked at Sandia National Labs (CA) and the Max Planck Institute of Metals Research (GE). Dr. Schneider started her academic career in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. She recently joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in 2015 as a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Dr. Schneider continues to remain involved with educating future engineers on the integration of material selection, component design and manufacturing methods.