A microstructural evaluation of as-deposited LasformedSM Ti-6Al-4V, a Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) process, is the subject of the current work. Distinct features of the macrostructure include: large columnar prior-β grains (the initial solid to form upon cooling from the melt) have grown through multiple deposited layers due to epitaxial growth from previously solidified layers; a well defined heat affected zone; the presence of “layer bands,” which are speculated to be a result of macrosegregation in the solidifying melt puddle and/or the complex thermal history that the part received as it was built, layer by layer. The microstructure of the layer band consists of larger colonies of acicular α outlined in transformed β, whereas the adjacent material consists of smaller colonies having the same type of structure.

Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) is a novel manufacturing process for fabricating metal parts directly from Computer Aided Design (CAD) solid models. The process is similar to rapid prototyping technologies in its approach to fabricate a solid component by layer additive methods. However, the LENS technology is unique in that fully dense metal components with material properties similar to wrought materials can be fabricated. The LENS process has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and cost required realizing functional metal parts. In addition, the process can fabricate complex internal features not possible using existing manufacturing processes. The real promise of the technology is the potential to manipulate the material fabrication and properties through precision deposition of the material, which includes thermal behavior control, layered or graded deposition of multi-materials, and process parameter selection.

Laser deposits fabricated from two different compositions of 304L stainless steel powder were characterized to determine the nature of the solidification and solid state transformations. One of the goals of this work was to determine to what extent novel microstructures consisting of single-phase austenite could be achieved with the thermal conditions of the LENS process. Although ferrite-free deposits were not obtained, structures with very low ferrite content were achieved. It appeared that, with slight changes in alloy composition, this goal could be met via two different solidification and transformation mechanisms.

Recent advances in laser deposition technology have made the production of advanced composite materials more technically feasible. By utilizing the unique characteristics of the laser deposition process, materials can be made that are difficult to produce by conventional methods. Structural silicide materials hold promise for high temperature applications, unfortunately, their low toughness has prevented their practical use [1-4]. The introduction of a second phase can greatly increase their low temperature mechanical properties. Laser direct deposition can be used to deposit these materials near net shape and produce an in-situ alloy that has the desired structure for improving properties. In-situ alloying was accomplished by using an Optomec LENS™ (Laser Engineered Net Shaping) machine to deposit elemental niobium-silicon and molybdenum-silicon-boron powder blends. The resultant microstructures showed a homogeneous structure with a primary silicide phase surrounded by a continuous eutectic phase. These deposits were characterized using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and by energy dispersive spectroscopy.

Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) gives engineers a new freedom to build parts which have proved impossible to manufacture using conventional techniques. However, the surface finish nd accuracy of SFF parts are still lower than those of parts which have been machined in conventional operations. A process combination of additive and subtractive techniques is currently being developed in order to overcome this problem. The hybrid approach called “3D Welding and Milling” uses welding as an additive and conventional milling as a subtractive technique, thereby exploiting the advantages of both processes. In this paper, the attempt was made to build multi-material parts, especially molds, by using two different deposition strategies. The results show that it is a feasible approach to build multi-material metal parts directly.

One of the main deficiencies in today‘s rapid tooling techniques is the capability of producing only near net-shape parts. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is a technique that enables the fabrication of true net-shape parts in just a few hours with only minimum postprocessing. The DMLS is a laser-based rapid tooling process developed in Europe by Rapid Product Innovations (formerly Electrolux Rapid Development Finland) and EOS GmbH Germany. Rapid Product Innovations was also the first to implement this technology to functional prototyping by using two proprietary bronze-based powders and a new steel-based powder. The technique enables the fabrication of tailored microstructures from porous matrix to near full density. Thus, functionally gradient structures can be fabricated, i.e. material is sintered to full density only where it is needed. This paper describes the philosophy of fabricating true net-shape mold inserts and metal components, but also concentrates on how to maintain the dimensional accuracy even after the post-processing. The study shows that even +/− 0.05 mm accuracy can be obtained. The results of the study also illustrate the beneficial effects of reduced layer thickness and post-processing on the surface roughness and mechanical properties as well as the suitability of various conventional and non-conventional coatings. With reduced layer thickness, the step-shaped effect of the layers was no longer visible. The surface was even further improved by shot peening and coating. In addition, case studies from injection molding, pressure die-casting and direct metal component fabrication are presented.

A series of designed experiments was performed in an attempt to evaluate and quantify the historically “anecdotal” benefits of conformal cooling for injection molding tooling. The study considered different generic part geometries, gating schemes, mold materials, plastic resins and cooling approaches. This paper provides an overview of the mold design approach, cooling simulation, tool fabrication via the 3DP™ process, as well as part molding and inspection results.

A method of rapid electroforming tooling for the production of metal tools including molds, dies, and electrical discharge machining electrodes is developed. Geometry and material of the solid freeform fabricated part, properties of the electroformed metal, and process parameters are significant factors that cause inaccuracy in the manufactured tools. Thermomechanical modeling and numerical simulation are used to simulate thermal stresses induced during the burnout process that removes the rapid prototyping part from the electroform. The analysis demonstrates that appropriate design of the rapid prototyping part geometry and selection of electroform thickness not only reduce thermal stress, thus improving tooling accuracy, but also minimize manufacturing time and cost.

A combination of Selective Laser Sintering and colloidal infiltration has been used to create partially stabilized zirconia molds for titanium casting. The mold material system was chosen for its low reactivity with molten titanium and thermal shock resistance. The base material, stabilized zirconia mixed with a copolymer binder, was pre-processed before laser sintering into the desired green shape. The average density of the fired parts could be increased to twice that of the green density. Hole sizes as small as 180 m are possible in thin ceramic components.

Cryogenic mechanical alloying (CMA) has been shown to be an effective means for producing composite powders for selective laser sintering (SLS). Unlike composite particles made by a coating process, both phases are continuous throughout the particles formed by CMA. Consolidation of these composite particles via SLS offers the possibility of forming parts with a co-continuous microstructure. In this research, the microstructure of mechanically alloyed polymer-polymer composites for use in the SLS process is investigated using transmission electron microscopy. By varying the charge ratio and milling time of the CMA process, the phase domain size of the resulting composite powder can be manipulated. This ongoing work explores the microstructural evolution as the composite powders are consolidated via SLS into macroscopic parts, as well as the relationships between microstructure and bulk properties.

This paper describes a new multilayer solid freeform fabrication process, “Direct Photo Shaping” (DPS), where visible digital light projection is used as a maskless tool to build images on photocurable ceramic dispersions (ceramic powders in photopolymerizable liquid monomers) by flood exposure. For each layer, the projected image is changed according to the CAD data describing the object being built and solidification takes place by photocuring the exposed areas. Multiple layers are dispensed and photocured to fabricate the object of interest. A final rinse with a suitable solvent allows the removal of any uncured ceramic dispersion. The porous free formed “green” ceramic object can then be fired and sintered into a highly dense ceramic part. Digital Light Processing™ technology (developed by Texas Instruments) enables SRI International to project digital, high resolution, high brightness, high contrast visible light to photocure and form components with a good degree of accuracy. This paper describes the Direct Photo Shaping process and its advantages, and how DPS is being applied to the fabrication of ceramic (Honeywell AS800) gas turbine components for military and commercial applications. ASS00 test specimens with flexural strength in excess of 800MPa were fabricated by DPS. A first-stage AS800 turbine vane for the Rolls-Royce Allison Model 501-K industrial gas turbine was fabricated by DPS and tested in a gas-burner test rig at 1204°C. Initial tests show that ceramic samples with optimized surface finish (comparable to that achieved by ceramic bisque machining) can be fabricated by applying a pixel anti-aliasing filter along the boundaries of the sample projected slice images.

The authors have been studying a new fabrication method termed “refrigerative stereolithography” which uses a gel resin layer instead of a liquid layer as in conventional stereolithography. This paper proposes the “direct masking method” in which a masking pattern is drawn to block direct light exposure to the surface of the gel resin layer. With such masks, we can avoid surplus growth only in the regions where it is unnecessary to improve height direction accuracy and resolution. Also, we can solidify the required section shape selectively using the masks and a lamp instead of laser scan patterns. The effectiveness of refrigerative stereolithography with the direct masking method is discussed and confirmed by some experimental results.

We demonstrate a novel laser-based approach to perform rapid prototyping of active and passive circuit elements called MAPLE DW. This technique is similar in its implementation to laser induced forward transfer (LIFT), but different in terms of the fundamental transfer mechanism and materials used. In MAPLE DW, a focused pulsed laser beam interacts with a composite material on a laser transparent support transferring the composite material to the acceptor substrate. This process enables the formation of adherent and uniform coatings at room temperature and atmospheric pressure with minimal post-deposition modification required, i.e., ≤ 400°C thermal processing. The firing of the laser and the work piece (substrate) motion is computer automated and synchronized using software designs from an electromagnetic modeling program validating that this technique is fully CAD/CAM compatible. The final properties of the deposited materials depend on the deposition conditions and the materials used, but when optimized, the properties are competitive with other thick film techniques such as screenprinting. Specific electrical results for conductors are < 5X the resistivity of bulk Ag, for BaTiO3/TiO2 composite capacitors the k can be tuned between 4 and 100 and losses are < 1-4%, and for polymer thick film resistors the compositions cover 4 orders of magnitude in sheet resistivity. The surface profiles and fracture cross-section micrographs of the materials and devices deposited show that they are very uniform, densely packed and have minimum resolutions of ∼10 µm. A discussion of how these results were obtained, the materials used, and methods to improve them will be given.

A large-scale plasma source immersion ion implantation (PSII) system with planar coil RFI plasma source has been used to study an inkless, deposition-free, mask-based surface conversion patterning as an alternative to direct writing techniques on large-area substrates by implantation. The apparatus has a 0.61 m ID and 0.51 m tall chamber, with a base pressure in the 10−8 Torr range, making it one of the largest PSII presently available. The system uses a 0.43 m ID planar rf antenna to produce dense plasma capable of large-area, uniform materials treatment. Metallic and semiconductor samples have been implanted through masks to produce small geometric patterns of interest for device manufacturing. Si gratings were also implanted to study application to smaller features. Samples are characterized by AES, TEM and variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry. Composition depth profiles obtained by AES and VASE are compared. Measured lateral and depth profiles are compared to the mask features to assess lateral diffusion, pattern transfer fidelity, and wall-effects. The paper also presents the results of MAGIC calculations of the flux and angle of ion trajectories through the boundary layer predicting the magnitude of flux as a function of 3-D location on objects in the expanding sheath.

We have successfully printed green ceramic objects from slurries of Al2O3 dispersed in paraffin wax using a commercial ink-jet printer developed for pattern making (Sanders Prototype MM6PRO). Concentrated suspensions are generally more viscous than the fluids normally passed through ink jet heads. This may alter the response of the printing system to its process parameters, e.g. driving voltage and frequency. We have explored the influence of fluid properties on the ink jet behaviour using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling and a parallel experimental study to determine the optimum printing conditions for particulate suspensions.

In this work we investigate the lateral dye distribution resulting from the dye doping of a thin polymer film by ink-jet printing (IJP) for the integration of color organic light emitting diodes (OLED's). The dye is found to segregate into distinct outer rings following rapid droplet evaporation, while slower evaporation rates are found to significantly reduce (or eliminate) this effect. The dye segregation phenomena are found to depend critically on the mechanisms of droplet evaporation. Good dye uniformity was obtained using a low vapor pressure solvent, and integrated, 250 micron red, green, and blue polymer organic light emitting diodes (OLED's) were fabricated with this technique. These devices had good color uniformity over most of the device area and similar electrical properties to comparable spin-coated devices without IJP.

Calculations of the Hamaker constants representing the van der Waals interactions between conductor, resistor and dielectric materials are performed using Lifshitz theory. The calculation of the parameters for the Ninham-Parsegian relationship for several non-aqueous liquids has been derived based on literature dielectric data. Discussion of the role of van der Waals forces in the dispersion of particles is given for understanding paste formulation. Experimental measurements of viscosity are presented to show the role of dispersant truncation of attractive van der Waals forces.

The liquid embossing process, devices made by this process, and their characteristics are presented. Structures fabricated and discussed here include: conductive lines with cross line resistance greater than 100 GΩ and resistivities 4 times that of the bulk material, multilayer structures with etched sacrificial materials, vias that conduct through an embossed insulating layer, photodetectors made with nanocrystal solutions of CdSe, and all printed inorganic field effect transistors.

The ability to engineer ordered arrays of objects on multiple length scales has potential for applications such as microelectronics, sensors, wave guides, and photonic lattices with tunable band gaps. Since the invention of surfactant templated mesoporous sieves in 1992, great progress has been made in controlling different mesophases in the form of powders, particles, fibers, and films. To date, although there have been several reports of patterned mesostructures, materials prepared have been limited to metal oxides with no specific functionality. For many of the envisioned applications of hierarchical materials in micro-systems, sensors, waveguides, photonics, and electronics, it is necessary to define both form and function on several length scales. In addition, the patterning strategies utilized so far require hours or even days for completion. Such slow processes are inherently difficult to implement in commercial environments. We present a series of new methods of producing patterns within seconds. Combining sol-gel chemistry, Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly (EISA), and rapid prototyping techniques like pen lithography, ink-jet printing, and dip-coating on micro-contact printed substrates, we form hierarchically organized silica structures that exhibit order and function on multiple scales: on the molecular scale, functional organic moieties are positioned on pore surfaces, on the mesoscale, mono-sized pores are organized into 1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional networks, providing size-selective accessibility from the gas or liquid phase, and on the macroscale, 2-dimensional arrays and fluidic or photonic systems may be defined. These rapid patterning techniques establish for the first time a link between computer-aided design and rapid processing of self-assembled nanostructures.

Functional materials configured as liquid toners are printed on a variety of substrates for various manufacturing processes. The materials include metal toners, resistor toners, high k dielectric toners, phosphors and glass. The substrates printed upon include glass, bare and coated metal, polymeric films and even paper. A fixed configuration electrostatic printing plate is used in most manufacturing applications though traditional photo receptor plates can be used if electronic addressability is desired.

Applications of electrostatic printing for electronic packaging products (printed wiring boards and flex circuits) and of passive electronic components themselves will be shown. Results with a pure silver toner printed on both glass and paper will be reported. Examples of passive electronic components like resistors, capacitors, and even inductors that have been electrostatically printed with liquid toners will be shown. Possible applications of toners to the manufacture of flat panel displays will be discussed.