Last year, SLM Solutions and Honeywell announced a partnership whose ultimate goal was to reduce printing times and costs. Since then, both teams have been working on the qualification of new additive manufacturing parameters that enable printing at increased thicknesses.
First results of this collaboration reveal new parameters for aluminum alloy F357, a new beryllium free version of AlSi7Mg0,6 (A357). According to SLM Solutions, the new parameters deliver improved material properties compared to parts produced through die-casting.
Meeting the stringent requirements of the aerospace industry with aluminum alloy F357
Aluminum alloy F357 is a lightweight metallic material with great weldability and suitability for post-processing. 3D Printed parts produced with this material are corrosion-resistant and withstand a wide temperature range compared to parts produced with conventional aluminum alloys. The metallic material combines several properties, which makes it an excellent candidate for the production of parts with thin walled and complex structures as seen in the aerospace or automotive industry.
Honeywell started its qualification project for aluminum builds with an increased layer thickness of 60 and 90 µm on their quad-laser SLM®500 Selective Laser Melting Machine. The Aerospace engineers at Honeywell received generic aluminum parameter sets from SLM Solutions to complete material qualification to obtain the most advantageous material properties.
These new parameter sets for aluminum alloy F357 with a layer thickness of 60 µm and 700 W lasers mark an important milestone for the aerospace specialist who will be able to take advantage of improved material properties in aerospace 3D Printed parts. As for the SLM Solutions team, not only did they learn a lot from this qualification, but now, their other customers will be able to benefit from these developments.
Dr. Sören Wiener, Senior Director Technology and Advanced Operations at Honeywell Aerospace, comments on his work with the SLM®500: “In particular, the open architecture system of the SLM® machine provides huge advantages like high flexibility and parameter sets can be customized. With this open access strategy and the great support of SLM Solutions, we step forward to achieving our next goals.”
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