Process repeatability and control of additive manufacturing (AM) continues to draw skepticism and doubt. Equipment manufacturers continue to develop systems and release new machine models while AM adopters pigeonhole their production by qualifying specific machine serial numbers. It falls to additive contract manufactures to establish material consistency across their machine fleet to promote the repeatability and control of the Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM) process. A consistent material produced across different models and systems allow AM adopters the flexibility and manufacturing efficiencies that accompany a process qualification instead of specific machine qualifications. This study investigates IN718 properties produced from three different models of EOS laser based metal powder bed fusion machines. Each system produced 30 tensile, 60 impact (30 aligned with the machine’s Z-axis, 30 aligned with the machine’s Y-axis), 30 hardness, 30 metallurgical, and 30 chemical test specimens over the course of three builds. One of the three builds from each machine used virgin IN718 powder while the other two were highly recycled material. Learn more: https://www.stratasys.com/manufacturing
