Aluminum aerospace-grade cracking in powder bed additive manufacturing

Powder bed processes have only been able to process casting-grade aluminum, not high-strength aerospace grades, due to cracking. Tom adds: carbon steels not a problem, titanium fine, nickel alloys (~$200/lb) going into high-temperature applications.

I'm not an expert from a metallurgical perspective on some materials, but there's a reason a lot of materials just have not been printed, and probably maybe cannot be printed, with a lot of processes. When you look at aluminum, one of the most widely used materials, powder bed processes have really only been able to process casting grades of aluminum, which are difficult or low strength. They haven't been able to process typical aerospace-grade high-strength aluminum because of issues with cracking. Do you have anything to add to that?