Vibratory Powder Feeding for Powder Bed AdditiveManufacturing using Water and Gas Atomized MetalPowders

TL;DR

This paper explores a vibratory powder feeding method for powder bed additive manufacturing, demonstrating its potential advantages over traditional recoaters through experimental and modeling studies with different metal powders.

Contribution

It introduces a vibratory powder delivery system and investigates its effectiveness and underlying mechanisms using experiments and discrete element modeling.

Findings

Vibratory feeding can control powder flow effectively.

Different powders respond uniquely to vibratory feeding.

Modeling reveals key parameters influencing feed rate.

Abstract

Commercial powder bed fusion additive manufacturing systems use recoaters for the layer-by-layer distribution of powder. Despite the known limitations of recoaters, there has been relatively little work presented on the possible benefits of alternative powder delivery systems. Here, we show the use of a technology using simple vibration to control the powder flow for powder bed additive manufacturing. The capabilities of this approach are illustrated experimentally using two very different powders; a `conventional' gas atomized Ti-6Al-4V powder designed for electron beam additive manufacturing and a water atomized Fe-4wt\%Ni alloy used in powder metallurgy. Discrete element modelling is used to reveal the mechanisms controlling the dependence of feed rate on feeder process parameters and to investigate the potential strengths and limitations of this approach.