AM/3D Trivia
In today’s Technical Tuesday installment, we highlight the various techniques and developments in the world of metal AM as it pertains to post-process heat treating. Check out the trivia quiz below to test your knowledge of the AM/3D industry, the processes, and the technology.
This feature was first released in Heat Treat Today’s January 2025 Technologies To Watch in Heat Treating print edition.
Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, has a history marked by constant innovation for uses across the space, aerospace, medical, food, and manufacturing industries, to name a few. While AM is known to support, streamline, and customize part production, advanced materials paired with evolving AM techniques are creating new possibilities in materials engineering and industrial manufacturing. Due to the nature of this ever-developing technology, in-house heat treaters must continually learn about AM components and how thermal processing may enhance component properties.
- What was the original name for additive manufacturing (AM), circa 1980s?
A) 3D printing
B) Rapid prototyping (RP)
C) Additive manufacturing (AM)
D) Rapid tooling (RT) - What grade of stainless steel is most commonly used for AM to achieve varying levels of strength, hardness, and elongation when heat treated?
A) 17-4 PH
B) 316L
C) 304
D) 430 - Who is Emanuel “Ely” M. Sachs?
A) An engineer at GE Aviation who combined multiple parts into one huge, complex design using a laser-based additive manufacturing method called direct metal laser melting
B) An engineer at Stratasys Ltd., an American-Israeli manufacturer that began using a material extrusion based process with their FFF (fused filament fabrication) technology to print parts, patented in 1989
C) A professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Worchester Polytechnic Institute who evaluated the post process heat treating of DMLS titanium alloy parts
D) An MIT engineering professor who patented the process of metal binder jetting technique in 1993 - What do cast parts made from powder metallurgy methods and AM parts have in common?
A) The same heat treatment cycles produce the best results
B) Custom cycles are used in less than 2% of both applications
C) Parts exhibit porosity
D) None of the above - What are the most commonly adjusted parameters to achieve higher yield strength when heat treating AM parts?
A) Cooling and heating rate
B) Temperature and time
C) Time and pressure
D) Temperature and pressure - Why is HIP known as the “gold standard” for processing AM parts for space?
A) Eliminates porous microstructures without compromising the part’s geometries and dimensions
B) High level of control and uniformity
C) Combines high temperature and pressure to improve a part’s mechanical properties
D) All of the above - What is NOT a potential benefit of additive manufacturing?
A) Immediate cost savings
B) Fast part production
C) Rapid prototyping
D) Opportunity for increased automation and use of robotics - What are the two main categories for most 3D printing methods?
A) Those that use liquid binding polymers, and those that don’t
B) Binder jetting technology (a non-melt-based process) and melt-based processes
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B - Which alloy was originally developed for aerospace applications but became one of the most common biomedical alloys?
A) Inconel 718
B) Inconel 625
C) Ti-6Al-4V
D) Hastelloy C22 - What was the first rapid prototyping method to produce metal parts in a single process (and is one of the most widely used AM technologies to manufacture Ti-6Al-4V parts)?
A) Powder-bed fusion (PBF)
B) Directed energy deposition (DED)
C) Sheet lamination (SL)
D) Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) - In what way does high temperature processing — specifically HIP below the annealing temperature (1470°F/799°C) — improve DMLS Ti-6Al-4V parts?
A) Preserves surface roughness and enhances osteointegration
B) Reduces porosity and enhances corrosion resistance
C) Both A and B
D) Neither A nor B - What is the ideal way to process 3D printed parts made using liquid binder polymers?
A) Print the parts in-house followed by debind and sinter.
B) Have AM parts delivered in-house for heat treating when parts are at the “Green” stage
C) Have AM parts delivered in-house for heat treating when parts are at the “Brown” stage
D) None of the above
How Did You Do?
We would like to thank Dan Herring, Animesh Bose, Ryan Van Dyke, Rob Simons, and Phil Harris for contributing their expertise to this trivia feature.
