Among the industrial AM technologies, selective laser melting (SLM) is the most widespread, thanks to its process stability and its favorable ratio between costs and part quality. However, selective laser melted products require coatings for functionalizing the surface with extra properties and in this article we’ll see how thin film deposition process can be carried out to coat titanium substrates.

Is it possible to coat the titanium alloy substrates to obtain a good improvement of the mechanical surface features?
What’s the role of vacuum heat treatments on additive manufactured parts?
Can the laser scanning paths affect the resulting adhesion of the coatings?

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Microextrusion technology is a valid alternative to produce micro components with complex features and tight tolerances.
Microextrusion of plastics represents a solution for some industrial applications such as in the biomedical field, despite its many challenging aspects.

Let's analyze all the process chain improvements in order to develop new monitoring and control methods for improving the final part quality.

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The mechanical characteristics and the density of the pieces produced by additive manufacturing with stainless steels have long been studied and are currently very high, that is, similar if not higher than those of traditionally manufactured parts.
Their resistance to corrosion is less well known and investigated.

To investigate the corrosion behavior, the Metallurgy section of the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI) of the University of Genoa in collaboration with TAV VACUUM FURNACES, the Saiem Srl company and the CNR-ICMATE of Padua started the study of steel samples made using the SLM technique (Selective Laser Melting).

Let's discover the interesting laboratory results.

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How do vacuum heat treatments affect the fatigue performance of components made with Selective Laser Melting technology?

We will analyze the relevant improvements obtained on products for the aerospace, medical and automotive sectors, thanks to the vacuum furnace posts‑processes of the components made with additive manufacturing (SLM).
Looking at the figures, we will conclude by exposing the interesting experimental results obtained in laboratory, thanks to a fruitful collaboration with an important university campus.

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Successful use of a vacuum furnace depends ultimately on the purity and reliability of its vacuum. There are numerous factors that can play into why a furnace is leaking, and the first step towards fixing the problem is to identify its root cause. Let’s take a look to some practical tips on how to find a furnace leak by using a helium leak detector.

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