TAV Vacuum Furnaces organized a workshop in Caravaggio, Italy – “Additive Manufacturing: The Advantages of Vacuum Heat Treatment” – with the goal of communicating the performance improvement of additive components after heat treatment.

The following topics were presented March 14 by Professor Gianni Nicoletto (University of Parma), Professor Alberto Molinari (University of Trento) and Professor Daniele Ugues (Politecnico di Torino):

• The current trends and perspectives of metal additive-manufacturing technology and its industrial potential. The advantages and limitations of this technology in the series production of metal parts in relation to different industrial sectors were discussed.
• The structural metastability of metal alloys obtained by SLM and their heat treatment.
• Vacuum heat treatment of Ni-based alloys fabricated via additive manufacturing. Study of the influence of the vacuum heat-treatment recipe on microstructural features and mechanical properties and the oxidation resistance of Ni-based alloys fabricated via additive manufacturing were also discussed.
• Fatigue and fracture behavior of AM metals after vacuum heat treatment. Qualification of metal additive-manufactured parts for structural applications require specific knowledge about the links among fabrication process, microstructure and actual mechanical performance. The original results about the fatigue and fracture behavior of powder-bed-fusion metals after heat treatment were presented.

After the presentations, attendees visited TAV’s plant and its wide range of vacuum furnaces.