Review: Materials Ecosystem for Additive Manufacturing Powder Bed Fusion Processes

Additive manufacturing technologies are revolutionizing modern component design across many industries, while leading to an evolution in materials science and engineering. Understanding and controlling the materials ecosystem in additive manufacturing is an essential factor for successful adoption. The relationships among materials chemistry, powder characteristics, processes and final part performance are key and crucial concepts in additive manufacturing technologies. Powder bed fusion (PBF) processes including laser and electron beam melting processes are fundamentally based on controlling the solid-to-liquid and liquid-to-solid phase transformations in each process layer. The powder characteristics, evolution of the microstructure through the additive manufacturing process and subsequent metallurgical post-processing are primarily responsible for material performance. A more comprehensive understanding of aspects such as powder characteristics, liquid- and solid-phase transformations, and the effects of repeated thermal cycling on metallurgical structure development will be required to effectively apply a design-for-additive approach. Numerical modeling and machine learning are among tools that can be used for developing such understanding. This article will provide a review and summary of the materials ecosystem for additive manufacturing powder bed fusion processes.