Numerical simulation and experimental measurement of pressureless sintering of stainless steel part printed by Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing

Binder Jetting-Metal Additive Manufacturing (BJ-MAM) is a powder bed-based additive manufacturing technology which deposits liquid binder droplets to join powder particles to form complex shaped structures (i.e., green parts). As the printing process is done around room temperature, BJ-MAM is largely immune to the distortion and cracking issues that can be prevalent in melting based powder bed processes. However, a main issue for BJ-MAM is the part shrinkage and distortion during high-temperature sintering. The densification and deformation behaviors during pressureless sintering of green parts printed by BJ-MAM were studied in this paper. Experimentally, cantilever- and bridge-shaped coupons with varying beam lengths were printed using 316L stainless steel powder; these coupons produced different extents of deformation after sintering. Based on the existing modeling approaches in the powder metallurgy literature, a finite element model was developed incorporating an elastic-viscoplastic constitutive equation for computing both uniaxial equivalent creep strain and volumetric swelling strain. Two methods, a viscosity based and a power-law creep based, were further evaluated for calculating the uniaxial equivalent creep strain. Material property data used in the constitutive equation such as viscosity and creep parameters were collected from the literature, critically reviewed, and then inputted into the model. Other salient features of the model included thermal-mechanical property data that were dependent on both relative density and temperature as well as frictional contact between the part surface and the furnace wall under gravitational load. The calculated quantities such as shrinkage, final relative density, and deformed shapes were compared with the respective experimental data across different part geometries. • Sintered coupons of 316L with varying beam length resulted in different deformation. • Finite element model was developed for sintering of binder jetting printed parts. • Viscoplastic constitutive law was used to calculate creep and swelling strains. • Viscosity based and power-law creep based methods were evaluated for creep strain. • Model was effective in predicting part densification, shrinkage, and deformation.