Wed, 01 October, 2025
A new white paper, written by TWI Technology Fellow Matthew J Doré PhD CEng FWeldI AMICE, has been produced exploring the latest research around the structural integrity of parts additively manufactured from steel and aluminium alloys.
Additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionised production through the transformation of digital design data into physical components that are built layer-by-layer, providing parts with precise shapes yet with minimal waste and no need for costly specialised tooling.
While the process enables significant product redesign and the creation of parts with novel material properties, AM of both steel and aluminium components have faced persistent challenges in ensuring consistent structural integrity.
The white paper, ‘The Status of Research on Structural Integrity of Additive Manufacturing in Steels and Aluminium Alloys,’ highlights the status of research in relation to the structural integrity of AM steels and aluminium alloys, identifying key challenges in ensuring structural integrity, as well as looking at standards development and future research needs. The paper also includes an overview of research conducted by PhD students working within the field of structural integrity as part of our Fatigue Integrity Management Section.
As well as drawing conclusions around the influence of different manufacturing processes on material properties and component performance, this study also offers an insight into the future research landscape for AM components, which will most-likely evolve toward more application-specific characterisation, expanded testing under diverse environmental conditions, and development of advanced in-process monitoring techniques.
You can see the white paper in full, below:
The Status of Research on Structural Integrity of Additively Manufactured Parts in Steels and Aluminium Alloys Rev2 - pdf - 1mb