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An Investigation of the Electropolishing of Metal Parts Fabricated By Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing

Thursday, 4 October 2018: 12:00
Universal 10 (Expo Center)
C. O'Neil, Y. Wu, A. Lassell, S. Dobson, and L. Yang (University of Louisville)
In this work the use of non-aqueous electropolishing for the surface treatment of the as-received Ti6Al4V and IN718 parts fabricated by laser and electron beam powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (PBF-AM) was investigated. Using the non-aqueous electrolyte, the characteristics of the voltage-current curve of the electropolishing exhibit a general absence of the plateau stage for both materials. Experimental design was carried out to quantify the significance of individual electropolishing parameters on the surface qualities of the samples. The electrolyte flow rate, the temperature and the electropolishing voltage appear to be the most significant input variables, and strong coupling effects among various electropolishing parameters were observed. The surface roughness of the electroplished samples exhibits significant improvement to less than 1μm, although the macroscopic surface texture was not effectively eliminated. In addition, the high-cycle fatigue performance of the electropolished samples exhibit significant improvement, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the surface treatment.