F. G. Arcella, D. H. Abbott, AeroMet Corporation, Eden Prairie, MN; T. Leonhardt, Rhenium Alloys Inc., Elyria, OH; K. Cooper, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
The AeroMet Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) process has been employed to fabricate rhenium shapes and test structures. The LAM process and the fabrication of rhenium shapes will be described. Examples will be shown where LAM could be employed to economically produce near net shape rhenium thruster and DAC system shapes in minutes without molds or dies. Tests have been performed to LAM rhenium into thruster preform shapes, alloy rhenium by the blending of elemental powders in-process in order to enhance performance properties, and to characterize the resulting material. Microstructure results, alloy uniformity from the elemental blending of powder in-process, interstitial description, and high temperature mechanical property performance will be described. Future work planned and its schedule will be overviewed.