Study on consistently optimum deposition conditions of typical metal material using additive/subtractive hybrid machine tool

Additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly being pursued as a practical approach for component manufacturing. Current AM technologies present certain challenges that are solvable with novel additive/subtractive hybrid machine platforms. Production of work pieces with consistent and viable material properties remains elusive. This work reports on a primary study to define combinations of additive process parameters and nozzle selection that result in quality work pieces. Specifically, AM work pieces of X2CrNiMo17-12-2 and Inconel 625 where characterized principally by porosity followed by tensile strength, hardness, and microstructure to determine optimal process parameters. A Taguchi analysis suggested desired work piece quality is achievable on a hybrid machine platform by adjusting AM process parameters (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V