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Laser powder bed fusion is one of the metal additive manufacturing technologies, so-called 3D printing. It has attracted great attentions due to high geometrical flexibility and remarkable metallurgical characteristics. An oil catch tank has been widely used in automotive industries for filtering oil vapors or carbon sludge from blow-by gas as a conventional usage. A pneumatic valve system mainly adopted to high-performance engines is also a potential application of it because undesirable oil infiltrates into air springs during engine operation, resulting in an excess spring pressure. This work focused on developing a lightweight oil catch tank which can be applied to a pneumatic valve system by taking advantage of additive manufacturing techniques. Al-Mg-Sc alloy powder with high tensile strength as well as high ductility were used under the consideration of specific strength, printability and availability.

The role of design in merchantability has become increasingly important in recent years. In this context, there is a need to establish a design-oriented design method for structural components. Topology optimization is a method that can create shapes beyond human knowledge, and its applicability as a design feature is expected. However, the objective function cannot be set freely at present, and optimization of strength requirements is a particular challenge. In this paper, a case study is conducted on a steering wheel bridge to apply topology-optimized geometry, which has design potential, to a structural member by conducting two-step optimization of topology and geometry.