Methods for producing forged products and other worked products

1. A method, comprising:

a. using additive manufacturing to produce a metal shaped preform, wherein the metal shaped perform comprises a plurality of undulations on a surface of the metal shaped preform indicative of an additive manufacturing build;

b. smoothing the plurality of undulations on the surface of the metal shaped preform via an energy source sufficient to provide a workable preform configured for a further working operation;

wherein the smoothing comprises at least one of: electron beam smoothing, flash lamp melting, laser melting, arc melting, and laser ablation; and

wherein the smoothing comprises heating at least a portion of a single bead depth; and

c. working the metal shaped preform to form a final forged product, wherein the working comprises heating the metal shaped preform to a stock temperature, wherein the stock temperature is a target temperature of the preform prior to forging in a range of from 850° C. to 978° C., and wherein the final forged product is a structural aerospace component.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal shaped preform comprises smooth outer edges.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the using step includes using a non-powder based additive manufacturing process to build the metal shaped perform.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises using a first set of beam parameters to additively manufacture the metal shaped preform, followed by changing to a second set of beam parameters configured for smoothing, wherein a set of beam parameters comprises a plurality of beam variables.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the beam variables include: beam size, beam current, travel speed, wire feed rate, beam pattern, scan path, and combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first set of beam parameters differ from the second set of beam parameters by a difference in at least one beam variable.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the wire feed rate is 0 during smoothing.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising preheating a substrate with the energy source before the using step.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the using step comprises additively manufacturing the metal shaped perform via a continuous build plan.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the using step comprises additively manufacturing the metal shaped perform via a continuous exterior build plan.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy source for the using step is the same energy source for the smoothing step.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein smoothing comprises, reducing a surface roughness of a measured portion of the surface of the metal shaped perform.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises reducing a depth to width ratio of valleys along a measured portion of the surface of the metal shaped preform.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises reducing a roughness along a measured portion of the metal shaped-preform, as detected with a blue light scan.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises increasing a temperature of a surface portion of the metal shaped preform in order to promote melting of the surface portion.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein smoothing includes at least one of: melting, softening, and consolidating at least a portion of a deposited additive manufacturing path geometry in order to smooth the surface of the metal shaped preform.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein smoothing comprises heating at least a portion of an exterior surface of an additive manufacturing deposit with an energy source.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein smoothing comprises heating at least two or more bead depths into the metal shaped preform.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the smoothing step comprises:

defocusing the energy source from a first beam size of the energy source deployed in the using step to a second beam size for smoothing;

rastering the beam into a pattern; and

moving over the surface of the preform to affect smoothing of the surface.