Post-processing metallurgy of additively manufactured iron aluminides

• Applicants: Dr.-Ing. Aliakbar Emdadi; Professor Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Härtel
• Subject Area: Metallurgical, Thermal and Thermomechanical Treatment of Materials ; Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528361532

This project will use iron aluminides based on Fe3Al as model materials to examine the process combination of additive manufacturing and hot forming to address the porosity closure behavior and microstructure refinement of the additively manufactured samples by a subsequent hot forging step. The main objective of the project is to understand the fundamentals of the microstructure evolution of the Fe-Al-Ta iron aluminides during laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processing. The project aims to optimize additive manufacturing parameters (layer thickness, scanning speed) and post-processing treatment (hot forging) to produce samples of Fe-Al-Ta iron aluminide with fine-grained and defect-free structures. Furthermore, the possibility of accelerating the AM process at the expense of material density and quality, which later will be re-adjusted by a subsequent hot forging process, will be investigated. The advantages of the process combination of AM and hot forming in terms of porosity closure and microstructure refinement through dynamic recrystallization will be examined. The knowledge that will be created in the proposed project can be used to produce specific parts (e.g., turbine blade components) more effectively, less costly, and faster with superior quality.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants