Customer Spotlight: Centre for Additive Manufacturing, University of Nottingham
Simulating Selective Laser Melting (SLM) SLM is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology for producing end-use components by melting metallic powders using high density energy flux created by a moving laser source. The team at Nottingham had clear motivation for researching what happens during the manufacturing process as the l arge thermal gradients result in transient and permanent residual stresses that may cause: Failure and/or distortion during manufacture Distortion upon removal from the build platform Overall reduction in part performance (e.g. reduced fatigue resistance) Post Build Cracking By simulating the process, it will identify the heat transfer during manufacture as well as the the distribution and magnitude of residual stress. Modelling SLM however is very challenging and computationally intensive due to the transient and non-linear nature of the process both across time and space. This is because the model requires to capture the ex