Course descriptions are provided for core courses in AM.
39-601/24-632 Special Topics: Additive Manufacturing Processing and Product Development
Introduction to additive manufacturing (AM) processing fundamentals and applications using Solidworks 3-D CAD software and a variety of polymer and metal AM machines. Includes a brief history of AM processing, a review of and technical fundamentals of current AM processes, a study of the current AM market, and future directions of the technology. Lab Sessions will support an open-ended product development project. Lectures on metals AM will address current research impacting industry. Students will also perform a literature review of papers on the state of the art. Basic Solidworks knowledge required.
39-602/27-765 Materials Science for Additive Manufacturing
This course will develop the understanding required for materials science and engineering for additive manufacturing. The emphasis will be on powder bed machines for printing metal parts, reflecting the research emphasis at CMU. The full scope of methods in use, however, will also be covered. The topics are intended to enable students to understand which materials are feasible for 3D printing. Accordingly, high power density welding methods such as electron beam and laser welding will be discussed, along with the characteristic defects. Since metal powders are a key input, powder-making methods will be discussed. Components once printed must satisfy various property requirements hence microstructure-property relationships will be discussed because the microstructures that emerge from the inherently high cooling rates differ strongly from conventional materials. Defect structures are important to performance and therefore inspection. Porosity is a particularly important feature of 3D printed metals and its occurrence depends strongly on the input materials and on the processing conditions. The impact of data science on this area offers many possibilities such as the automatic recognition of materials origin and history. Finally, the context for the course will be discussed, i.e. the rapidly growing penetration of the technology and its anticipated impact on manufacturing.
39-603 Additive Manufacturing Laboratory
Hands-on laboratory projects will teach students about all aspects of metals additive manufacturing (AM). Students will learn how to use SOLIDWORKS for part design, create and transfer design files to the AM machines, run the machines to build parts, perform post-processing operations, and characterize AM parts. Student will work in teams and complete three separate lab projects, each utilizing a different material system, part design, AM process/machine, post-processing steps and characterization methods. A major lab report and presentation will be required for each of the three lab projects. The course includes weekly lectures to complement the laboratory component. Prerequisites: 39601/24632 and 39602/27765. Priority for enrollment will be given to students who have declared the Additive Manufacturing Minor.