Characterization of Additively Manufactured High-Performance Metallic Materials
Additive manufacturing is increasingly used for volume production of metal components in the aerospace, automotive and medical industries. Through electron beam melting (EBM) technology, metal particles in powder form are selectively melted together using an electron beam, which then produces the desired components layer by layer.
For the characterization of high-performance materials that can be created with this manufacturing process, a testing lab of a Swedish customer was equipped with a ZwickRoell high-temperature testing system.
Customized additive manufacturing of heavily stressed components
The freedom of design, combined with outstanding material properties and high productivity make additive manufacturing processes particularly interesting for complex, heavily stressed components such as turbine blades and engine parts for the aerospace industry, or implants used in the medical field.
These processes use metal powders made of titanium or titanium alloys, TiAl alloys, cobalt-based alloys, and nickel-based superalloys. To meet customer-specific material requirements, tests powders with the desired material properties are continuously developed.
Internationally reproducible test results with strain controlled tensile tests to ISO 6892-2 Method A1
For the characterization, development and quality assurance of these high-performance materials, a testing system for strain controlled high-temperature tensile tests to ISO 6892-2 Method A1 up to a maximum force of 150 kN is used.
With the addition of a high-temperature furnace, the testing system covers a temperature range of +200°C to +1,200°C. Strain on the specimen is measured using a non-contact laserXtens 2-120 HP/TZ extensometer in accuracy class 0.5 according to ISO 9513.
ZwickRoell’s reliable testing system allows our customer to perform strain controlled tensile tests to ISO 6892-2 Method A1 under high temperature and minimize differences in test speeds and measurement uncertainties in the test results. This ensures international reproducibility of the characteristic values among their testing laboratories and with their customers.