In this case study with Renishaw, we uncover how the varying temperatures throughout a furnace have a significant impact on the mechanical properties of AM parts, in this case showing over 10% variation in yield strength, and how these findings have led Renishaw to optimise their heat treatment process, ensuring consistency and increasing confidence in part performance.

Where machining tensile specimens for testing is not an option, hardness is often considered as a solution. This poses a significant limitation; while hardness testing offers advantages such as affordability, speed, ease of use, and suitability for testing small specimens, a hardness number is not a fundamental material property. Furthermore, practitioners are limited to conversions into a limited set of material property values, as hardness numbers cannot give full stress-strain curves, which means that without further information finite element modelling cannot always be conducted accurately.

Cost and time constraints have shaped the conventional workflow in Additive Manufacturing (AM) parameter development, separating parameter down-selection from mechanical property assessment. Yet, this method, aimed at discovering optimal parameters, is inherently flawed. It exposes projects to expensive delays and squandered innovation opportunities due to initial data shortages, potentially misleading results, and unexpected material behaviour. Could prioritising mechanical properties from the outset offer a solution, and is such an approach feasible in practice?

In collaboration with Alloyed, we explore how mechanical properties differ across sections of an additively manufactured part and discover how testing directly on a part ensures that AM designs will deliver performance that users can rely on.

The objective of this case study was to obtain accurate mechanical testing data for a small, extruded aluminium part from a bike rim, provided by Spur, using PIP testing. If successful, it would demonstrate a practical way of obtaining key data for small and complex components with minimal processing and turnaround times.

In collaboration with the University of Limerick, this case study investigates the suitability of PIP testing to explore the detection of property variations in parts produced through additive manufacturing.

The objective in this study, conducted in collaboration with The Welding Institute, was to determine if PIP testing could accurately map the stress-strain behaviour across a weld with a fine spatial resolution, and to quantify the time and cost savings that PIP offers over traditional tensile testing when used for characterising weld mechanical properties.

The aim of this case study, conducted in conjunction with Ovako, was to use PIP testing to characterise a case-hardened layer by indenting planar surfaces after progressive removal of thin surface layers.

In this case study, conducted in collaboration with Professor Roger Reed and Dr. Tony Tang from the University of Oxford, we assess whether PIP testing can be used to measure stress-strain curves on small alloy samples made by additive manufacturing.

This investigation relates to two types of sample supplied by Energy Densification Systems. These were both a shaped component of Hardox steel, with and without a cermet insert brazed into it. Via PIP testing it was possible to obtain stress-strain relationships for local areas of the component. The heat treatment associated with the brazing process (which was not revealed to PLX) induced significant changes in the stress/strain responses of all locations.

In this study we use PIP testing to spatially map the variations in mechanical properties across a large forged aluminum component.