3-D printed part for nuclear fusion test reactor.
(Image courtesy of Leifeng Liu/University of Birmingham.)
The findings, published in Materials Today, outline how a joint research team from the University of Birmingham, Stockholm University and Zhejiang University were able to optimizing the 3D printing process parameters to achieve their results.
Leifeng Liu, who is the main participant of the project, recently moved to the University of Birmingham from Stockholm University as a research fellow. He said, "Strength and ductility are natural enemies of one another, most methods developed to strengthen metals consequently reduce ductility."
Being able to 3D print parts that are both strong and ductile could unlock additive manufacturing of heavy duty parts. It could also benefit this engineering project to design and manufacturing interchangeable parts.
"The 3D printing technique is known to produce objects with previously inaccessible shapes, and our work shows that it also provides the possibility to produce the next generation of structural alloys with significant improvements in both strength and ductility," said Liu.
This has been made possible thanks to the ultrafast cooling rate, estimated to range from 1,000 C per second to 100 million C per second—something that was not possible in bulk metal production process until the emergence of 3D printing.
Metals that are cooled down so quickly enter a so-called non-equilibrium state, allowing for some amazing microstructures like the sub-micron-sized dislocation network, which maintains its configuration during plastic deformation, making it an ideal modulator that can slow down dislocation motion without blocking it entirely.
"This work gives researchers a brand new tool to design new alloy systems with ultra-mechanical properties,” Liu said. “It also helps metal 3D printing to gain access into the field where high mechanical properties are required like structural parts in aerospace and automotive industry."
3D printing has long been recognized as a technology which can potentially change our way of manufacturing, allowing us to rapidly build up objects with complex and customized geometries. With the accelerating development of the technology in recent years, 3D printing, especially metal 3D printing, is quickly progressing toward widespread industrial application.
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