Fabrication and energy absorption characteristics of thin-walled metal structures fabricated by thermal debinding bound metal deposition additive manufacturing

Thermal debinding is a safe and environmentally friendly debinding method for removing the binders during the process of metal parts manufacturing by bound metal deposition (BMD). In this study, the binders in the sample are effectively removed using thermal debinding method by reducing the sample wall thickness. The structures applicable to thermal debinding in bound metal deposition additive manufacturing and the energy absorption characteristics of sintered metal parts are deeply analysed. The results show that the sheet structure with a wall thickness of 0.45 mm does not produce obvious deformation, blistering and cracks after thermal debinding. The prepared thin-walled structure with curved thin walls in the interior does not induce obvious deformation, blistering or cracks after thermal debinding and the thin-walled metal structure after sintering only has small number of micron pores. The thin-walled metal structure has good energy absorption effects. The energy absorption is 19.2 J and the specific energy absorption is 6.6 J/g of the thin-walled metal structure during the compression process, which is 187% higher than the specific energy absorption of two-dimensional thin-walled metal structures (mainly honeycomb structures) in the results of the published literature.