In-situ X-ray diffraction study of additive manufacturing to aid in tool steel development
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan - Institutionen för materialvetenskap |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 500 000 |
| Project duration | February 2020 - December 2021 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Research infrastructure - utilisation and collaboration |
| Call | Industrial pilot projects for the utilisation of neutron and photon based techniques at large-scale infrastructures - Autumn 2019 |
| End-of-project report | 2019-05276_Uddelholm.pdf (pdf, 301 kB) |
Important results from the project
To develop new tool steels to produce hot work tools with additive manufacturing (AM) through laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF), a better understanding of the materials´ crack sensitivity is needed. In this project, measurements with X-ray diffraction under actual AM conditions have been performed in a L-PBF-printer on the MicroXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) in Villigen Schweiz. The measurements have provided in-depth understanding of interrelations of the chemistry, process parameters and the microstructure that is formed during the process.
Expected long term effects
The project has resulted in an understanding of the process that could not be realized by examining already printed components that is the usual approach when studying the microstructure. The complex thermal history has been measured in local temperature profiles and has been linked to the ongoing microstructure development during the process. The information will be used as input to the further development of alloys and process at Uddeholm.
Approach and implementation
The miniature L-PBF equipment at PSI is designed for SLS and the MicroXAS beamline, where a focused X-ray beam with relatively low energy (17 keV) enables measurement of individual laser tracks during the process. With fast detectors (40 kHz), processes of few microseconds can be detected in detail. The project was granted beamtime through proposal and measurements have been done for one of Uddeholm´s alloys. Data have been analyzed with routines written in Matlab and Python. We have also held meetings, workshops and done supplementary research.