Metal three-dimensional (3D) printing is an important emerging processing method in powder metallurgy. There are many successful applications of additive manufacturing. However, processing parameters such as laser power and scan speed must be manually optimized despite the development of artificial intelligence. Automatic calibration using information in an additive manufacturing database is desirable. In this study, 15 commercial pure titanium samples are processed under different conditions, and the 3D pore structures are characterized by X-ray tomography. These samples are easily classified into three categories, unmelted, well melted, or overmelted, depending on the laser energy density. Using more than 10,000 projected images for each category, convolutional neural networks are applied, and almost perfect classification of these samples is obtained. This result demonstrates that machine learning methods based on X-ray tomography can be helpful to automatically identify more suitable processing parameters.

The enamel powders used traditionally in Korea are produced by a ball-milling process. Because of their irregular shapes, enamel powders exhibit poor flowability. Therefore, polygonal enamel powders are only used for handmade cloisonné crafts. In order to industrialize or automate the process of cloisonné crafts, it is essential to control the size and shape of the powder. In this study, the flowability of the enamel powders was improved using the spheroidization process, which employs the RF plasma treatment. In addition, a simple grid structure and logo were successfully produced using the additive manufacturing process (powder bed fusion), which utilizes spherical enamel powders. The additive manufacturing technology of spherical enamel powders is expected to be widely used in the field of cloisonné crafting in the future.

The directed energy deposition (DED) process of metal 3D printing technologies has been treated as an effective method for welding, repairing, and even 3-dimensional building of machinery parts. In this study, stainless steel 316L (STS316L) and Inconel 625 (IN625) alloy powders are additively manufactured using the DED process, and the microstructure of the fabricated STS316L/IN625 sample is investigated. In particular, there are no secondary phases in the interface between STS316L and the IN625 alloy. The EDS and Vickers hardness results clearly show compositionally and mechanically transient layers a few tens of micrometers in thickness. Interestingly, several cracks are only observed in the STS 316L rather than in the IN625 alloy near the interface. In addition, small-sized voids 200– 400 nm in diameter that look like trapped pores are present in both materials. The cracks present near the interface are formed by tensile stress in STS316L caused by the difference in the CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) between the two materials during the DED process. These results can provide fundamental information for the fabrication of machinery parts that require joining of two materials, such as valves.

In this study, two types of SKD61 tool-steel samples are built by a selective laser melting (SLM) process using the different laser scan speeds. The characteristics of two kinds of SKD61 tool-steel powders used in the SLM process are evaluated. Commercial SKD61 tool-steel power has a flowability of 16.68 sec/50 g and its Hausner ratio is calculated to be 1.25 by apparent and tapped density. Also, the fabricated SKD61 tool steel powder fabricated by a gas atomization process has a flowability of 21.3 sec/50 g and its Hausner ratio is calculated to be 1.18. Therefore, we confirmed that the two powders used in this study have excellent flowability. Samples are fabricated to measure mechanical properties. The highest densities of the SKD61 tool-steel samples, fabricated under the same conditions, are 7.734 g/cm³ (using commercial SKD61 powder) and 7.652 g/cm3 (using fabricated SKD61 powder), measured with Archimedes method. Hardness is measured by Rockwell hardness testing equipment 5 times and the highest hardnesses of the samples are 54.56 HRC (commercial powder) and 52.62 HRC (fabricated powder). Also, the measured tensile strengths are approximately 1,721 MPa (commercial SKD61 powder) and 1,552 MPa (fabricated SKD61 powder), respectively.

In this study, H13 tool steel sculptures are built by a metal 3D printing process at various laser scan speeds. The properties of commercial H13 tool steel powders are confirmed for the metal 3D printing process used: powder bed fusion (PBF), which is a selective laser melting (SLM) process. Commercial H13 powder has an excellent flowability of 16.68 s/50 g with a Hausner ratio of 1.25 and a density of 7.68 g/cm3. The sculptures are built with dimensions of 10 × 10 × 10 mm3 in size using commercial H13 tool steel powder. The density measured by the Archimedes method is 7.64 g/cm3, similar to the powder density of 7.68 g/cm3. The hardness is measured by Rockwell hardness equipment 5 times to obtain a mean value of 54.28 HRC. The optimum process conditions in order to build the sculptures are a laser power of 90 W, a layer thickness of 25 μm, an overlap of 30%, and a laser scan speed of 200 mm/s.

Selective laser melting (SLM) can produce a layer of a metal powder and then fabricate a three-dimensional structure by a layer-by-layer method. Each layer consists of several lines of molten metal. Laser parameters and thermal properties of the materials affect the geometric characteristics of the melt pool such as its height, depth, and width. The geometrical characteristics of the melt pool are determined herein by optical microscopy and three-dimensional bulk structures are fabricated to investigate the relationship between them. Powders of the commercially available Fe-based tool steel AISI H13 and Ni-based superalloy Inconel 738LC are used to investigate the effect of material properties. Only the scan speed is controlled to change the laser parameters. The laser power and hatch space are maintained throughout the study. Laser of a higher energy density is seen to melt a wider and deeper range of powder and substrate; however, it does not correspond with the most highly densified three-dimensional structure. H13 shows the highest density at a laser scan speed of 200 mm/s whereas Inconel 738LC shows the highest density at 600 mm/s.

In this study, ultra-fine soft-magnetic micro-powders are prepared by high-pressure gas atomization of an Fe-based alloy, Fe-Hf-B-Nb-P-C. Spherical powders are successfully obtained by disintegration of the alloy melts under high-pressure He or N2 gas. The mean particle diameter of the obtained powders is 25.7 μm and 42.1 μm for He and N2 gas, respectively. Their crystallographic structure is confirmed to be amorphous throughout the interior when the particle diameter is less than 45 μm. The prepared powders show excellent soft magnetic properties with a saturation magnetization of 164.5 emu/g and a coercivity of 9.0 Oe. Finally, a toroidal core is fabricated for measuring the magnetic permeability, and a μr of up to 78.5 is obtained. It is strongly believed that soft magnetic powders prepared by gas atomization will be beneficial in the fabrication of high-performance devices, including inductors and motors.