Additive Manufacturing
or 3D Printing
Additive Manufacturing provides the ability to improve efficiency, agility, and building complex structures not possible with traditional casting. The process of joining materials usually in layers allows manufacturing a wide variety of structures on demand as needed and nothing more. But it also brings in new challenges with materials selection, component testing and failure analysis. MTA Labs provides a variety of services to help you on your additive manufacturing journey.
Mechanical & Corrosion Testing
Mechanical testing to obtain the tensile and yield strength and percentage elongation can be carried out on 3D printed “Dog Bones”.
Corrosion testing prior to manufacturing, coupons of the 3D printed materials should be prepared so that the corrosion resistance can be measured. A suitable test for corrosion resistance would be the ASTM specification G-150, otherwise known as the Critical Pitting Temperature Test. This will determine whether the as-printed surface has promising corrosion resistance or whether some surface improvements such as electropolishing and passivation may be needed.
Evaluation of precursor materials
A crucial step in additive manufacturing is to assure that the powder or other materials supplied has the right size distribution and chemical analysis. This evaluation can be carried out using a scanning electron microscope to examine morphology and size of powder particles, and energy dispersive X-Ray analysis to determine the powder composition.