This application is the US National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2019/069882 filed 24 Jul. 2019, and claims the benefit thereof. The International Application claims the benefit of European Application No. EP18187030 filed 2 Aug. 2018. All of the applications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
The invention refers to a metal composition. Furthermore, the invention refers to a method of manufacturing using said metal composition. Furthermore, the present invention refers to a use of said metal composition.
Metals are highly important materials used in modern industry. This is true despite some people limiting their view to certain materials like plastics that became an essential part of modern life in the past decades metal is and will remain the backbone of modern life. Herein, the metals are almost essentially used in form of their alloys to provide characteristics tailored specifically to the corresponding needs. The area of alloys is continuously point of further developments even on established working fields.
Herein, the area of 3D-printing started to provide a new way of building parts like spare parts. This flexible yet highly exact manufacturing method, however, provides new challenges that have to be solved to provide the products requested. For example, the layerwise build-up process results in problems as established materials for known applications might not always perform as well as they do using established production processes used in this context. Herein, such problem becomes of special interest for high performance applications like the use in streaming engines.
The research, for example, within the area of streaming engines already resulted in a great number of different alloys to address the specific needs in this context. However, the additive manufacturing methods, especially 3D-printing, required some additional review to ensure that the specific needs like high reliability under extreme conditions are also addressed when using known metal compositions for such new method of manufacturing. For example, the melting process of the metal composition in a process like SLM differs from the melting of a typically employed casting process as used for, for example, vanes, blades and heat shields. To this point specifically adapting and optimizing the production process parameters might be used to minimize or even negate negative effects of this production method using commonly available alloys. However, it would be very beneficial, if common production parameters could be used for production process without requiring specifically adapting the process to the specifics of each part or at least reducing such required adaptions.
This problem is solved by the products, methods and uses as disclosed hereafter and in the claims. Further beneficial embodiments are disclosed in the dependent claims and the further description. These benefits can be used to adapt the corresponding solution to specific needs or to solve further problems.
According to an aspect the invention refers to a nickel based metal composition comprising:
According to an aspect the invention refers to a metal composition consisting of:
According to another aspect the present invention refers to a method for additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing, using an inventive metal composition.
According to another aspect the invention refers to a product containing an inventive metal composition, or manufactured from an inventive metal composition, or manufactured according to an inventive method according.
According to another aspect the invention refers to a use of an inventive metal composition for additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing.
To simplify understanding of the present invention it is referred to the detailed description hereafter. However, the invention is not to be understood being limited to these preferred embodiments as they represent embodiments providing additional benefits to solve specific problems or fulfilling specific needs. The scope of protection should be understood to be only limited by the claims attached.
According to one aspect the present invention refers to an alloy as described above. Surprisingly, the inventive alloy provides at least a greatly simplified production process requiring little to no adaptions of the production procedure to process the alloys while maintaining their excellent properties being essential, for example, for their use in streaming engines. As such applications have high requirements like high reliability of the parts used therein like vanes and blades, simplifying such production procedure also reducing the amount of required adaptions simultaneously reduces the risks resulting from new designs and, thus, also increases safety and opens the possibility to further optimize the design of corresponding parts.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the amount of Mn is less than 0.01 wt.-%, based on the total weight of the metal composition. Such alloys typically provided a more generic applicability of these alloys in additive manufacturing.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains
Unless explicitly specified otherwise the wt.-% of the components of a metal composition as specified herein consisting of multiple components preferably amount to 100 wt.-% based on all components contained therein, whether these components are explicitly mentioned or not. Embodiments disclosing more specific ranges for a limited number of these components are only to limit the ranges of these specific components, while the wt.-% of the amounts of all components of such more restricted metal composition should still amount to 100 wt.-% also after including the more specific ranges of such specific embodiments.
The term “incidental impurities” as used herein refers to additional components of the metal composition resulting from especially impurities of the base materials used to produce the metal composition. For example technical grade metals typical include small amounts impurities of other metals not influencing, preferably at least not negatively influencing, the properties of the resulting alloy. In this context, it is especially referred to the alloy resulting from processing the inventive metal composition using the additive manufacturing process as disclosed herein resulting, for example, from melting the metal composition by a laser used during selective laser melting. Typically, it is preferred that such incidental impurities amount up to 1 wt.-%, more preferred up to 0.6 wt.-%, even more preferred up to 0.4 wt.-%, based on the total weight of the metal composition. Additionally or alternatively it is in further embodiments preferred that the amount of each of such incidental impurity is at most 0.2 wt.-%, more preferred at most 0.13 wt.-%, even more preferred at most 0.1 wt.-%, based on the total weight of the metal composition.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains oxide particles selected from the group consisting of Y2O3 particles and YAlO3 particles. Such particles typically increase the overall strength of the product resulting from said metal composition.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains:
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition comprises:
Nickel,
based on the total weight of the metal composition. Typically it is preferred that the amount of Nickel is at least 38 wt.-%, more preferred at least 49 wt.-%, even more preferred at least 55 wt.-%. Such alloy typically provided especially beneficial results for providing components of a streaming engine being used in the fluid stream.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains at least 0.005 wt.-% Fe and/or at least 0.005 wt.-% Hf. Such metal compositions typically provide an improved processability for additive manufacturing.
An especially beneficial metal composition typically providing very good results for 3D-printing production processes is listed below. This metal composition provided, for example, excellent results for selective laser melting and selective laser sintering manufacturing processes. According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition consists of:
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition consists of:
Typically, it was further especially preferred that certain components are included in the metal composition in the form of oxide particles, while reducing the amount of other oxides. These stable oxide particles seem to increase the overall strength while being at least not completely melted or dissolved under typical manufacturing conditions. According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition consists of:
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that at least 90 wt.-%, more preferred 98 wt.-%, even more preferred at least 99 wt.-%, of the metal oxide particles are Y2O3 particles. It was noted that these particles are especially useful for typical applications like selective laser melting.
A further especially beneficial metal composition typically providing very good results for 3D-printing production processes is listed below. Herein, the alloy resulting from the specified components optionally including metal oxide particles typically provided especially beneficial results for highly stressed components used, for example, in gas turbines. According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition consists of:
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition consists of:
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition contains no metal oxide particles. Such metal compositions are typically more easily prepared.
According to another aspect the invention refers to a method for additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing, using an inventive metal composition. For such applications the inventive metal compositions proved to be especially beneficial. Herein, the alloy as specified by the components of the metal composition above optionally including metal oxide particles provide a typically highly reliable product using different means of additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing, and different parameters and/or building processes of such method.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the method of additive manufacturing is selected from the group consisting of selective laser melting (SLM), selective laser sintering (SLS), electron beam melting (EBM) and binder jetting.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the metal composition is used as powder. Herein, a mixture of different powder can be used like, for example, a first powder containing the inventive alloy and a second powder containing the metal oxide particles or the metal oxide particles and further inventive alloy, or the first powder contains a part of the components of the inventive alloy and the second powder contains the metal oxide particles and the rest of the components of the inventive alloy.
According to another aspect the present invention refers to a product containing an inventive metal composition, or manufactured from an inventive metal composition, or manufactured according to an inventive method.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the product is a powder to be used in additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing. It was noted that the inventive metal composition can be easily used to provide a metal composition powder being very efficiently used in existing devices for additive manufacturing and especially 3D-printing.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the product is selected from parts of a streaming engine, preferably a gas turbine. Herein, the high flexibility resulting from the improved characteristics of the metal composition combined with its high quality of product manufactured herewith is very beneficial for especially such application.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the product is adapted to contact the fluid stream of the streaming engine. Examples for such streaming engines are steam turbines and gas turbines, especially gas turbines. Such components are highly stressed and benefit greatly from the inventive metal compositions.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the product is selected from the group consisting of vanes, blades, heat shields and burners of a streaming engine, more preferred of a steam turbine or gas turbine, even more preferred of a gas turbine.
According to another aspect the present invention refers to a use of an inventive metal composition for additive manufacturing, preferably 3D-printing. Especially, a layerwise structured production process as used in 3D-printing benefits greatly from the inventive metal composition.
According to further embodiments of the present invention it is preferred that the method of additive manufacturing is selected from the group consisting of selective laser melting (SLM), selective laser sintering (SLS), electron beam melting (EBM) and binder jetting. For these applications especially good results have been obtained
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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18187030 | Aug 2018 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2019/069882 | 7/24/2019 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2020/025413 | 2/6/2020 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20210260649 A1 | Aug 2021 | US |