Major objective of the project is to harness the potential of the SLM process to obtain localised part properties (within a range of few hundred microns) which are favourable for fatigue behaviour of a component. Overcoming the issues causing reduction of fatigue strength can be very expensive if the manufacturing of the whole component is oriented for fatigue performance. The expected success in manufacturing functionally graded structures will be helpful for industry for manufacturing reliable components. An understanding of graded microstructures and the interaction between different microstructural features regarding damage mechanisms will be determined for the first phase of this project.

Duration: 2017 until 2019