| description abstract | Additive manufacturing (AM) enables new possibilities for the design and manufacturing of complex metal architectures. Incorporating lattice structures into complex part geometries can enhance strength-to-weight and surface area-to-volume ratios for valuable components, particularly in industries such as medical devices and aerospace. However, lattice structures and their interconnections may result in unsupported down-skin surfaces, potentially limiting their manufacturability by metal AM technologies, such as laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). This study aimed to examine the correlation between down-skin surface area and the manufacturability of lattice structures fabricated using LPBF. Image processing algorithms were used to analyze down-skin surface areas of seven unique lattice designs and to devise quantitative metrics (such as down-skin surface area, discrete surface count, surface interconnectivity, down-skin ratio, over-print/under-print volumes, etc.) to evaluate LPBF manufacturability. The seven lattice designs were subsequently manufactured using maraging steel via LPBF and then examined using imaging using X-ray micro-computed tomography (XCT). The geometric accuracy of the lattice designs was compared with XCT scans of the manufactured lattices by employing a voxel-based image comparison technique. The results indicated a strong relationship between down-skin surface area, surface interconnectivity, and the manufacturability of a given lattice design. The digital manufacturability evaluation workflow was also applied to a medical device design, further affirming its potential industrial utility for complex geometries. | |
