Evaluation of the Ultra-High Vacuum Suitability of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Manufactured Stainless Steel 316L


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Date

2024

Publication Type

Conference Paper

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yes

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Abstract

Additive manufacturing has been adopted across various industries to benefit from its unique capabilities. However, there is currently no significant use of the technology in the ultra-high vacuum industry. One challenge is the limited data available on the vacuum-specific performance of laser powder bed fusion manufactured parts. In this paper, the leak rate, outgassing, and residual gas analysis of stainless steel 316L samples is evaluated, considering the as-built surface and post-processing by glass bead blasting, Hirtisation, and machining. Two of three machined samples showed a leak rate at the detection limit of the test stand of 10-9 mbar L s−1. All samples showed a pump-down behavior very similar to conventional stainless steel with all chamber pressures within 1.4 × 10−8 after 20 h of pumping. All surface post- processed samples showed low levels of surface contamination, with the ion currents above 50 amu more than three decades below the ion current of H2O. The as-built samples with a machined surface were the only samples to exceed this limit. Overall, while application-specific standards must be evaluated for each use case, the results show the process to generally be ultra-high vacuum compatible.

Publication status

published

Book title

Industrializing Additive Manufacturing

Volume

Pages / Article No.

407 - 422

Publisher

Springer

Event

3rd International Conference on Additive Manufacturing in Products and Applications (AMPA 2023)

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Subject

Metal Additive Manufacturing; Laser Powder Bed Fusion; Stainless Steel 316L; Vacuum Properties; Ultra-High Vacuum; Leak Rate; Outgassing; Residual Gas Analysis

Organisational unit

03943 - Meboldt, Mirko / Meboldt, Mirko check_circle

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