Laser Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing Titanium 5553 Development

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This project aims at the laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) of Titanium-5553 for deploying to landing gear systems. LPBF is a class of additive manufacturing (AM) that has provided tremendous opportunities for various industries such as aerospace, tooling and automotive. Given the opportunities provided by LPBF and also the importance of the deployment of this technology for making aerospace parts with lower weight and better load bearing, a pilot study was initiated in early 2018 between the University of Waterloo and Safran Landing Systems Canada Inc. to investigate the feasibility of LPBF of Ti-5553 coupon samples for physical properties measurements. Given the promising results of the pilot study, this collaborative project is proposed to address several remaining challenges including holistic characterizations of the LPBF process for Ti-5553 through a screening phase and design of experiments, a thorough characterization of the LPBF-made specimens, durability/repeatability investigation, and dynamic and static tests of the printed parts. The project has three work packages: 1)WP1: Design of Experiments and process optimization; WP2: Mechanical testing and analysis of process optimized parts; and, WP3: Creating a real aerospace part with optimum parameters. The benefit of LBPF of landing gear parts is tremendous. The printed parts can be redesigned to benefit from design flexibility and parts consolidation that AM offers, thus becoming lighter and in turn, minimize fuel consumption in airplanes. In addition, LBPF can be deployed for low-volume manufacturing of such parts in a longer term, as the fabrication costs will drop through consolidation of parts in one print. The outcome of this technology, if successful, will be pervasive and will have a deep and broad impact. Many industries will benefit from the deployment of LPBF to Ti5553, with the most immediate example beyond aerospace being the maritime industry, for their integrated offshore oil rigs. Successful outcomes will also be of tremendous importance to our industrial partner, Safran, which intends to expand its activities to the AM processes and printed high-valued components.