Additively manufactured metallic compliant structures, a focus on manufacturing strategy and material performances verification

摘要

Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes is a constantly growing topic of interest in sectors such as space, astrophysics, medical and watch making industries. While the largest part of the R&D work presently reported is focused on developing and optimizing designs of "structural or massive parts", little work has been published to determine the limits related to the manufacturing of flexible structures used in compliant mechanisms. In this context, usual weaknesses attributed to AM processes - surface roughness, material porosity & mechanical anisotropy - may become major showstoppers. It is worthwhile to mention that designing compliant mechanisms also implies the association of these elementary flexible structures to the stiff structural segments of the mechanical part. Associating these very heterogeneous geometries into a single monolithic part built by AM is a challenge in itself.