A Systematic Approach to Optimize Parameters in Manufacturing Complex Lattice Structures of NiTi Using Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion Process

Herein, the quality and accuracy to manufacture delicate parts from NiTi powder using electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) technology is investigated. Therefore, benchmarks with thin cylinders and thin walls are designed and fabricated using two distinct scan strategies of EB-PBF manufacturing (i.e., continuous melting and spot melting) with different process parameter sets. After these optimizations, four different lattice structures (i.e., octahedron, cell gyroid, sheet gyroid, and channel) are manufactured and characterized. It is shown both continuous melting and spot melting modes are able to manufacture lattices with relative densities over 97%. And as-built lattice structures exhibit an excellent pseudoelasticity up to 8% depending on the design of the structure, e.g., the channel structure shows more deformation recoverability than the cell gyroid. This is attributed to the integrity of geometry as well as compressive mode of the mechanical loading. Of course, the compressive strength and ultimate compressive strength also increase with the increasing volume fraction. Moreover, the spot melting can be used as an engineering tool to customize a delicate beam-shaped structure with a superior pseudoelasticity. This study explores the precision of electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) for NiTi parts using continuous and spot melting scan strategies for the density and mechanical properties.image (c) 2024 WILEY-VCH GmbH