Paduan Titanium Baru Membuat Pencetakan 3D Lebih Kuat dan Lebih Murah

Engineers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) unveiled a new manufacturing process to create 3D-printed titanium. The revamped design replaces expensive ingredients while enhancing durability and reducing production costs and time. Here’s how this upgraded titanium alloy has the potential to revolutionize several industries, while inspiring innovative new composite designs.

3D-Printed Titanium Alloys

The ability to 3D print titanium alloy is only around a decade old and continues to evolve every year. There are many reasons why scientists continue to turn towards titanium alloys as an ideal 3D printing material. For one, they offer an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. Additionally, the material is corrosion resistant, adding to its use in medical and other high-tech mission-critical devices.
Recent developments have driven interest in 3D-printed titanium alloys further. The development of repeatable titanium lattice structures has helped make these prints more stable, allowing their use in more applications. Notably, the most common way to print titanium alloys is to use either Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) or Directed Energy Deposition (DED) techniques.

Understanding Ti-6Al-4V: The Industry Standard Alloy

While there are many types of titanium alloys, the most popular and established is Titanium grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V). This titanium alloy provides durability, strength, and low density to prints. Additionally, its versatility enables it to be used in a wide array of applications, including as a key component in advanced aerospace and automotive applications.

Problems with 3D Printing Titanium Alloys

While popular, Titanium Grade 5 isn’t perfect. Its shortcomings include a complicated manufacturing process that is subject to oxidation, resulting in errors in the print. To prevent this, these devices can only operate in an inert gas environment. Each of these requirements adds to the overall cost of 3D printing titanium.

Why Microstructure Control Matters in Titanium Printing

One of the biggest limiting factors with today’s approach to 3D printing titanium is controlling the microstructural transitions that occur during the solidification process. This is known as the columnar to equiaxed transition (CET), and it is a critical component that must be managed to produce high-quality titanium alloy prints.
To date, it has been extremely difficult for researchers to gain precise control over the CET. The data shows that these materials tend to create column-shaped microstructures during the cooling process. Sadly, these structures ruin the integrity of prints, resulting in uneven mechanical properties and reduced durability.

3D Printed Titanium Alloy Study

Thankfully, these problems could become a thing of the past. A team of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) scientists just figured out how to unlock the full potential of 3D printed titanium alloys.

Their study¹, “Compositional criteria to predict columnar to equiaxed transitions in metal additive manufacturing,” published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, explains how they were able to overcome the creation of column-shaped microstructures using new material mixtures.

Sumber – RMIT University