The collaborative research project addLight aims to achieve basics for the industrial usability of reproducible, integrated LPBF-manufactured topology-optimized lightweight lattice constructions under static and cyclic load. Therefore, inter alia the influences of manufacturing parameters and mechanical surface finish as well as heat treatments on the mechanical material properties are investigated on the alloy AlSi10MnMg. The findings will be used to generate a reliable prediction of lifetime and machine learning aided correlations between the process parameters, structure and mechanical properties.

For the characterization of material properties, static and cyclic mechanical tests are applied. The specimens are manufactured in different orientations to determine orthotropic behaviour. For the cyclic tests a combination of compact testing strategy via Load-Increase-Tests and statistically safeguarded Constant-Amplitude-Tests is used. The experiments are focused on local material behaviour. Thermometric and resistometric surveillance of the specimens allows it to follow material damaging during the tests.

The topics of interest treated in the presentation are but are not limited to:
•    Influence of mechanical surface finish and heat treatment on the mechanical properties of additive manufactured aluminum alloys
•    Cyclic damaging behaviour of additive manufactured aluminum alloys
•    Use of compact testing strategies for quick material characterization
•    Local measurements for the detection of material damaging
•    Orthotropic material behaviour