Additive Manufactured Parts Outperform 17-4 PH Stainless Steel

ITAMCO (Indiana Technology and Manufacturing Companies; Plymouth, IN) has additively printed parts made with new 17-4 PH IndustryLine metal powder from EOS North America (Troy, MI) that outperformed 17-4 PH Stainless Steel in tensile strength in a recent research project where the goal was to explore the properties of additive-manufactured parts made with the new metal powder for direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). ITAMCO prepared the build of nine cylinders using Sunata™ software by Atlas 3D (Plymouth, IN) that automatically chose the best orientation for the parts and generated the necessary support structures for the build on an EOS M 290 3D printer. Three cylinders were built horizontally, three were built at 45 deg to the horizontal, and three were built vertically. After the build, the cylinders were cut from the build plate and sent for heat treatment.

The heat treatment followed the recommended steps by EOS. First, the cylinders were heated to 1,040 deg C and kept at that temperature for 0.5 hour. The cylinders were then quenched by argon. After that, the cylinders were reheated to 480 deg C and kept at the temperature for one hour. The cylinders were quenched again by argon. The hardness was between 40 HRC and 47 HRC and the estimated tensile strength was 190 KSI after heat treatment. The cylinders were then shipped to SGS MSi (Melrose Park, IL), a metallurgical testing laboratory. The key results were the tensile strength (psi) numbers: The tensile strength of the nine cylinders outperformed the tensile strength of raw material 17-4 PH that had been heat treated. The average tensile strength (psi) of the nine cylinders was 192,000. The average tensile strength (psi) of six heat-treated stainless steels (H900, H1025, H1075, H1150, H1150-M, H1150-D) is 144,000. To see source, please click here.

“We conducted this research so we could compare the wrought properties of metal to parts made through additive manufacturing with the new EOS 17-4 PH Stainless Steel metal powder,” said Joel Neidig, the business development and technology manager at ITAMCO. “It is quite amazing to us that we achieved the wrought properties of metal.” Another interesting finding from the research was that although the nine cylinder samples were built with three orientations, the tensile strength, yield strength, elongation and reduction of area were fairly consistent for all of the samples. In other words, the material properties are near isotropic for those samples built additively with different build orientations in the EOS M 290 3D printer. ITAMCO is building additively manufactured parts for the medical device market, which makes the EOS metal powder of particular interest to them.

EOS Stainless Steel 17-4 PH IndustryLine is a high strength, easily curable, highly corrosion-resistant and acid-resistant material, making it ideal for manufacturing surgical and orthopedic instruments. However, the powder will also be used to build gears and related components for applications in mining, oil, gas, aerospace, automotive and energy. “Planning security and reliability are top priorities for users who are engaged in serial manufacturing,” explained Dr. Tobias Abeln, the chief technical officer at EOS. “For this powder, we provide reliable and statistically proven data for the most important material properties of finished parts. This significantly raises quality standards in additive manufacturing. The customer can use the data 1:1 to qualify the technology for large-scale production and minimize the time required, as well as cut the cost of in-house material and process qualification.”

Laura Gilmour, the global medical business development manager with EOS North America, recently told Neidig that ITAMCO was a referred contract manufacturer because they were running the complete EOS system. “They are running the magic triangle: the combination fully tested by EOS material scientists in Finland of 17-4 PH IndustryLine metal powder, the grid nozzle for optimized Argon gas flow, and the scanning parameters provided by us.” EOS is sharing ITAMCO’s tests results with their potential customers. “Their referrals and support validate our move into additive manufacturing,” added Neidig. “We are more than capable of using additive manufacturing to expand our market position and deliver real benefits to our customers.”

ITAMCO, 6100 Michigan Road, Plymouth, IN 46563, 574-936-2112, www.itamco.com.

EOS North America, 1000 John R Road, Suite 209, Troy, MI 48083, 248-588-6510, www.eos.info/en.