Additive manufacturing (AM) is a layer upon layer material joining process to build a three-dimensional object. The enormous growth in recent decades was observed utilizing AM in biomedical and aerospace applications, especially with metallic materials. Existing efforts have reduced fabrication cost and process-induced defects to make AM effective compared to conventional subtractive manufacturing. In the present effort, a study on fused deposition modeling (FDM) of tin-silver (SnAg) solder alloys and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) of Ni-based superalloy were performed.

FDM is employed to deposit Sn – 3 and 5Ag solder alloys to study the effect of parameters such as heater block temperature, extrusion velocity, nozzle outlet diameter, and feed rate. It was observed that with an increase in Ag %, the formability of deposits enhanced. Furthermore, deposition at temperatures closer to the eutectic line also improved the deposition quality. Contrarily, the formation of interlayer voids was minimal at deposition temperature away from the eutectic line. Moreover, no significant variation was observed in the microhardness of Sn5Ag as-deposited specimens when compared with the as-received filament.

Inconel® 718 alloy produced by the DMLS technique is employed to study the microstructural evolution and accompanying mechanical properties of both as-deposited and heat-treated specimens. Material characterization using optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy was studied. Micro Vickers' hardness testing was done to measure the hardness of as-deposited and heat-treated specimens. Tensile tests at room temperature were performed both along the built direction and perpendicular to the built direction to examine the anisotropy. Furthermore, it is proposed to use numerical modeling using the discrete element method (DEM) opted to study the formation of porosity and mechanical properties of deposits from DMLS and offer process improvement solutions.