Steve Konick: What actually happens inside the printer as it creates a part? So that's the size of the part that you're going to get if you want to go all out and really hit the limits of what the XLine printer can do for you. Steve Konick: And that is huge, no question. Imagine you had two basketballs side by side, that’s a general frame of reference. The build platform on the XLine is 800mm long by 400mm in depth by 500mm tall. Marques Franklin: We're not quite at the Yugo point to sort of put things into perspective. Just how big is it with these printers? Are we talking-you can print a part that's cantaloupe-size, or basketball-size, or like a Yugo, or what? What can you get out of them? The XLine printers are really about large, large format. And we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Steve Konick: And now we have plastics, we have metals of various sorts. And when people saw all the advantages of plastic printing, they said, well, man, if only we could do this in metal, that would take this to the next level. Marques Franklin: You know, I think it's like with anything, everyone is always trying to push the boundaries of what can be done. Steve Konick: And you said it started with plastics initially and moved on to metals, what was the trigger that made someone decide, you know what, we could probably do this with metals? And so it allowed us to get complex shapes, but also simplify the geometry and the manufacturing process for a cost advantage. For instance, the CFM fuel nozzle was GE's first part where we went from 18 parts down into one part. And so here at GE, we recognize the significance of being able to take complex parts that consisted of multiple pieces and turn them into one single piece. And so that's just developed from prototype into, you know, working in a lab, to more and more companies trying to turn it into a production-type system. And in the mid-1990s, there was an institute called the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany which started doing melting of metals. Marques Franklin: So, as you said, plastic printing has been around since the early-1980s. Additive manufacturing started as a prototyping technology, but times have really changed and we've seen a shift from small- and medium-sized parts to much, much, larger applications and also from prototyping to end-use. Steve Konick: Let's start off with a bit of history. Results of the XPS and STEM-EDX analysis of oxide composition are shown to be in agreement with the thermodynamic calculations confirming that oxide scale on sputter particles is formed by MgAl 2O 4 spinel and Al 2O 3 (corundum) oxides.Marques Franklin: Thank you, Steve. Columnar oxide scale formation on spatter particles was revealed as well, reaching up to 125 nm in thickness measured using STEM. Analysis of the oxide characteristics were consistent with the observed oxygen content in the sampled powder. XPS analysis of the powder surface chemistry indicates that powder particles are covered by uniform oxide layer, formed by Mg- and Al-based oxides, average thickness of which increased from ~4 nm in case of the virgin powder up to about 38 nm in case of the reused for about 30 month powder, established by XPS. The results show an increase in volume fraction of heavily oxidized spatter particles up to 3% in 30 months. Thereby, detailed analysis of the powder morphology, microstructure and surface chemistry was performed by SEM, TEM and XPS. AlSi10Mg powder degradation in Concept Laser XLINE 2000R machine over the total period of 30 months was analyzed in order to understand the extent and mechanism affecting powder aging. Knowledge concerning powder degradation during additive manufacturing (AM) processing is essential to improve the reusability of the powder in AM and hence maximize feedstock powder reuse and economy of the process.
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