A case study on 3D scanning, digital reparation and rapid metal additive manufacturing of a centrifugal impeller

Abstract

Abstract This paper demonstrates a comprehensive method for digital restoration and rapid manufacturing of a fully functional mechanical component. A damaged centrifugal impeller of an automotive engine was reverse-engineered via a 3D laser scanner, with which the 3D model of the investigated object was digitally captured. Utilizing advanced design software and surface modelling, the missing fragments were restored and the impeller’s 3D digital model was reconstructed. Metal additive manufacturing technology and more specifically the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technique was employed to construct a functional metal impeller. Stainless steel 17-4 PH powder was used as the printed material. To ensure the exploited powder was appropriate for the part to be manufactured, we applied characterization of the feedstock material was conducted through two different characterization methods, i.e. granulometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Furthermore, Surface Distance Maps (SDM) were calculated to correlate the geometrical deviations between the physical 3D printed part and the digital model in order to examine the accuracy of the applied method.