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Today’s 3D Printing News Briefs is all about materials, from recycled metal replacements and a new high-strength alloy to microstructure control in nickel-based superalloys and more. Read on for all the details!
The LEHVOSS Group, under the management of Lehmann&Voss&Co., is taking the opportunity of the upcoming K 2025 plastics trade fair to present its expanded business strategy, with a theme of “Smart Resourcing.” To strike the ideal balance of cost-efficiency, performance, and sustainability for its customers and their needs, the company will supplement its established plastics portfolio with metal replacement materials based on recycled resources. This line, called LUVOTECH eco, is for use with injection molding, extrusion, and 3D printing. This flexible business strategy offers unique value for clients in three main areas, the first of which is secure sourcing. Additionally, the eco-based metal replacement materials are competitively priced, tailored to required performance specifications, and offer consistently high-quality standards.
“LEHVOSS stands for high performance—that remains unchanged. What’s new is that, especially with LUVOTECH eco, we are now also offering demanding metal replacement materials based on recycled raw materials, enabling our customers to achieve economically smart resource management,” said Dr. Thomas Oehmichen, Partner and Managing Director of the LEHVOSS Group.
“The pressure on our customer industries has steadily intensified in recent years—cost pressure, time pressure, innovation pressure, and, in some areas, ongoing procurement challenges. Only through close collaboration and dialogue with our customers can we successfully overcome these challenges and thrive in the global market.”
Osprey MAR 55 and components
Sandvik has announced the latest addition to its materials portfolio: Osprey® MAR 55, a versatile powder alloy that closes the gap between tool steels and maraging steels. With ultra-high strength, excellent weldability, and good mechanical properties and wear resistance, this patent-pending alloy was designed primarily for excellent processability in laser powder bed fusion without plate preheating. This makes it a good choice for tooling applications that need hardness levels over 50 HRC and wear resistance above what the 18-Ni class of maraging steels offer. Sandvik says MAR 55 shows enhanced nitriding properties, and that in comparison to 18Ni300 maraging steel, the content of both nickel and molybdenum is reduced by 50%, which decreases both emission and energy factors. To ensure low oxygen and contamination levels, the alloy is produced in a VIGA atomizer, and offers higher thermal conductivity and exceptional toughness at cryogenic temperatures. Additionally, Sandvik says customers confirm it offers a longer service life than 18Ni300.
“Before MAR 55, customers had to choose between good weldability and performance. This new alloy bridges the gap between maraging steels and carbon bearing tool steels. It means that the alloy is easily weldable, with exceptional toughness. Also, it can be heat-treated without the need for prior costly solution annealing (austenitization) or cryogenic treatments,” said Faraz Deirmina, Principal Metallurgist at Powder Solutions, Sandvik. “At the same time its wear and fatigue resistance are similar to the carbide strengthened tempered martensitic microstructures of medium carbon tool steels.”
IMDEA Materials Institute researcher Ignacio Rodríguez Barber pictured with multiple LPBF-printed IN939 structures.
In a new study, researchers at the IMDEA Materials Institute in Madrid detailed an industrially scalable method for microstructure control of the Inconel 939 (IN939) alloy during LPBF 3D printing. Their methodology demonstrates that it’s possible to design, predict, and control the microstructural properties of nickel-based superalloys. The key was identifying melt pool overlap—a parameter related to laser scan track spacing—as a reliable design tool and predictor for controlling grain structure during printing of IN939. They explained that processing conditions which produce melt pool overlaps below 0.6 can prevent elongated, strongly oriented grains from developing, which achieves a more uniform structure. Additionally, higher overlaps help grains grow in a manner that results in a strongly textured internal structure. So, by adjusting this overlap perpendicular to the scan and build directions, microstructure can be locally modified. This gives them a predictive tool so manufacturers can more accurately tune the microstructure of IN939, based on parameters such as hatch distance, scan speed, laser power, and scan track length.
“IN939 is of high interest in demanding engineering applications like gas turbines and the aeronautical industry because of its excellent combination of high-temperature strength, oxidation resistance, and creep resistance,” said author Ignacio Rodríguez Barber, PhD researcher at the Sustainable Metallurgy Group at IMDEA Materials.
“However, it is also difficult to process due to its cracking susceptibility, resulting in a narrow processability window. Our approach not only provides guidelines to obtain excellent printing results, it also enables site-specific design of microstructure for different sections of a part, paving the way for performance-optimised components.”
ASTM International’s F42 committee on AM is working to develop a proposed standard focused on the cleanliness of metal powder feedstock. The standard, WK80171, will provide guidance to users on choosing optimal techniques to detect, quantify, and classify any contaminants that may be present within AM metal powder feedstock. The test methods subcommittee, F42.01, which is part of the F42 committee, is developing this new standard. Its purpose is to define different contamination types that might be in metal powders used in LPBF printing. Additionally, the proposed standard will include methods for how to detect these contaminants, and several test methods have already been evaluated to determine their suitability for the task, including automated scanning electron microscopy, x-ray computed tomography, and optical microscopy. WK80171 will also detail how the chosen testing method can be successfully implemented to detect contamination in metal AM powder feedstock. This standard will be extremely useful to AM metal powder users and manufacturers.
🏷️ p3d_feedASTM member Aneta Chrostek-Mroz, advanced research engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Center, said, “The standard will enable powder manufacturers and additive manufacturing machine users to 1) identify appropriate techniques for detecting and quantifying different types of contamination; (2) classify these contaminants; and (3) perform contamination assessment of both unused and re-used powders.”