In our laboratory, we are working on the utilization of metal additive manufacturing (3D printer) and the improvement of its quality from the viewpoint of design engineering (DfAM) rather than from the viewpoint of hardware.

For example, metal additive manufacturing is known to warp greatly like welded parts, which can sometimes lead to molding defects.

(Examples of thermal deformation in metal additive manufacturing and its mechanism. Only about 5 cm test piece is warped greatly.)

In our laboratory, we have succeeded in reducing thermal deformation by optimally distributing the lattice structure.

(Example of thermal deformation reduction by optimally functionally graded lattice. Deformation is reduced by up to 20% compared to a uniform lattice.)

Representative Papers

- A. Takezawa, Q. Chen, A. C. To, Optimally Variable Density Lattice to Reduce Warping Thermal Distortion of Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Addit. Manuf., in press.

- Q. Chen, H. Taylor, A. Takezawa, X. Liang, X. Jimenez, R. Wicker, A. C. To, Island scanning pattern optimization for residual deformation mitigation in laser powder bed fusion via sequential inherent strain method and sensitivity analysis, Addit. Manuf., 46 (2021) 102116. 

- A. Takezawa, A. C. To, Q. Chen, X. Liang, F. Dugast, X. Zhang, M. Kitamura, Sensitivity analysis and lattice density optimization for sequential inherent strain method used in additive manufacturing process, Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 370 (2020) 113231.