Metal additive manufacturing using electron beam melting (EBM) process applies electron beam for heating, sintering, and melting of powders to fabricate a three-dimensional component. The component may contain residual porosity internally and may be subjected to poor surface finish externally. To improve the quality of the surface finish and densification, re-melting is conducted. The purpose of this paper was to estimate the appropriate process conditions for a plasma electron beam remelting process using heat transfer finite element analyses (FEAs). The impact of the travel speed of table and thickness of the deposited part on temperature distributions were examined. The size of molten pool was estimated from the results of the thermal FEA. From the estimated size of molten pool, the travel speed of table and the hatch spacing between remelting tracks are discussed and selected as the appropriate process conditions for electron beam re-melting process from the perspective of minimum overlapping region of the molten pool.

Heat transfer characteristics in the vicinity of irradiated region of the beam of a selective laser melting (SLM) process affect the creation of the melted region during the deposition. The creation of the molten pool is greatly influenced by laser parameters and powder characteristics. The goal of the paper is to investigate the influence of laser parameters and powder porosity on thermal characteristics in the vicinity of the molten pool of the SLM process through repeated finite element analyses (FEAs). The power and the scan speed are chosen as the laser parameters. The laser is assumed to be a volumetric Gaussian heat flux model. Materials of the powder and the substrate are chosen as SUS17-4PH and S45C, respectively. Temperature dependent thermal properties for those material are used to perform the FEA. An appropriate efficiency of the heat flux is predicted by comparing the results of FEAs and those of experiments. The influence of laser parameters on temperature distributions in the vicinity of the melted region and the formation of the molten pool is examined. In addition, the effects of porosity of powders on heat transfer characteristics in the vicinity of the melted region are discussed.

The runner system of the injection mould and the injection volume of the injection molding process greatly affect the quality of the produced part. The goal of this paper is the design of the runner system and the prediction of the injection volume for the injection moulding of a housing part of small-size air cleaner to improve the formability through the three-dimensional injection moulding analysis. The effects of the runner system of the mould on the injection moulding characteristics are investigated. From the results of the investigation, a proper design of the runner system with uniform filling characteristics and the minimized defect formation is obtained. In addition, the influence of the moving distance of the screw on filling characteristics, weldline formation and deformation characteristics is examined. From the results of the examination, an appropriate moving distance of the screw for the housing part of small-size air cleaner is estimated.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the improvement of surface characteristics of Stellite21 deposited layer by powder feeding type of direct energy deposition (DED) process using a plasma electron beam. Re-melting experiments of the deposited specimen is performed using a three-dimensional finishing system with a plasma electron beam. The acceleration voltage and the travel speed of the electron beam are chosen as process parameters. The effects of the process parameters on the surface roughness and the hardness of the re-melted region are examined. The formation of the re-melted region is observed using an optical microscope. Results of these experiments revealed that the re-melting process using a plasma electron beam can greatly improve the surface qualities of the Stellite21 deposited layer by the DED process.

A powder spreading phenomenon is one of disadvantageous characteristics of the powder bed fusion process using electron beams. The powder spreading phenomenon can be controlled using a pre-heating process of metallic powders. The aim of this paper was to investigate the preheating process of Stellite21 powder using electron beams. Powder spreading experiments were performed to examine the influence of process parameters on the spreading behaviors of Stellite21 powder. Powder heating experiments were carried to investigate the effects of the focusing current of the electron beam on the quality of the heated region. Using the results of the powder spreading and heating experiments, an appropriate combination of process parameters was obtained. The pre-heating experiment of Stellite21 was performed using the estimated combination of process parameters. The results of preheating experiments showed that the preheated Stelllite21 layer with desired characteristics can be created when the estimated combination of process parameters is applied.

A monobloc tubular drive shaft is designed to obtain the improved structural safety and the weight reduction of the drive shaft together. The monobloc tubular drive shaft can be manufactured from an incremental hot rotary forging process. The aim of this study was to experimentally determine conditions of an incremental hot rotary forging process for a monobloc tubular drive shaft. Induction heating experiments were performed to estimate a proper heating time of an initial workpiece in an induction heating process. Several incremental hot rotary forging experiments were carried out using a mechanical press with the designed set-up. The step distance and the step angle were chosen as controllable forming parameters. Based on the results of the experiments, the influence of forming parameters on the quality of the forged part was investigated. Finally, a forming map and a proper forming condition of the incremental hot rotary forging process were estimated.

A drive shaft is used to transmit torque and rotation through the connection of components of a drive train. Recently, a monobloc drive shaft without welding regions is developed to improve the safety of the drive shaft. The drive shaft bears the shear stress induced by torque. The objective of this paper is to investigate into the structural safety of a monobloc tubular drive shaft subjected to torque. Elasto-plastic finite element (FE) analysis is performed to estimate the deformation behavior of the drive shaft and stress-strain distribution in the drive shaft. Several techniques are used to create finite element (FE) model of the monobloc tubular drive shaft subjected to torque. Through the comparison of the results of FE analyses with those of experiments from the viewpoint of rotational angle, appropriate correction coefficients for different load conditions are estimated. The safety of the tubular drive shaft is examined using the results of FE analyses for different load conditions. Finally, it is noted that the designed tubular drive shaft has a sufficient structural safety.

The goal of this paper is to investigate preliminary the applicability of 3D printing technologies for the development of the hot bulk forming process and die. 3D printing technology based on the plastic material was applied to the preform design of the hot forging process. Plastic hot forging dies were fabricated by Polyjet process for the physical simulation of the workpiece deformation. The feasibility of application of Laser-aided Direct Metal Rapid Tooling (DMT) process to the fabrication of the hot bulk metal forming die was investigated. The SKD61 hot-working tool steel was deposited on the heat treated SKD61 using the DMT process. Fundamental characteristics of SKD 61 hot-working tool steel deposited specimen were examined via hardness and wear experiments as well as the observation of the morphology. Using the results of the examination of fundamental characteristics, the applicability of the DMT process to manufacture hot bulk forming die was discussed.