Posted on 10/18/2024 10:49:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
Enhanced 3D printing techniques now allow for the production of 17-4 PH stainless steel, optimizing its strength and corrosion resistance. This achievement marks a significant step forward in the additive manufacturing of complex alloys. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
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Using advanced X-ray techniques, scientists have achieved a significant milestone in 3D printing by producing 17-4 PH stainless steel with superior strength and durability.
This development promises to lower costs and increase production flexibility, offering profound implications for manufacturing complex materials.
Breakthrough in 3D Printing of Stainless Steel Researchers have developed a reliable method to produce a specific type of stainless steel, 17-4 PH, using additive manufacturing or 3D printing. Historically, 3D printing steel and other alloys has been problematic due to the rapid temperature changes these materials undergo when heated by the lasers in 3D printers. These fluctuations disrupt the structural arrangement of atoms, compromising the material’s toughness. By employing bright X-ray beams, scientists monitored these swift changes in real time and modified the chemical composition to counteract them, thereby enhancing the durability of the final product.
Known for its robustness and corrosion resistance, 17-4 PH stainless steel is utilized in industrial machinery, marine vessels, aircraft, and medical devices. These new advancements could enable manufacturers of 17-4 PH components to reduce costs and improve manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, the techniques developed in this study pave the way for a deeper understanding of how to 3D print various materials while enhancing their properties and performance.
Microtomographic 3D snapshots of complex structure of thermal cracks and air bubbles in an additive manufactured metal during the 3D printing process. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory Innovations in Additive Manufacturing
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3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a direct and integral construction of a three-dimensional object from a digital model, layer by layer. Metal alloys are particularly tricky to print in this manner due to the rapid temperature changes that occur during the process. Using 3D printing to reproduce a durable material such as 17-4 PH stainless steel requires the ability to closely monitor these rapid changes as they happen and make modifications to the material’s crystal structure.
Monitoring 3D printing of 17-4 PH stainless steel was made possible by the bright X-ray beams at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a Department of Energy Office of Science light source user facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The researchers used high-energy X-ray diffraction to capture images every few milliseconds as the material was heated and cooled. Using these images, the team mapped the correlation between process parameter changes and modifications to the crystal structure, then used that analysis to guide alloy development for optimizing the printing process. They then used small-angle X-ray scattering at the APS to characterize tiny structural anomalies called nanoprecipitates that strongly influence the final strength of a printed stainless-steel part. The method developed will help enable manufacturers to consistently and cost efficiently produce one of the toughest materials in the world.
Reference:
“Phase transformation dynamics guided alloy development for additive manufacturing”
by Qilin Guo, Minglei Qu, Chihpin Andrew Chuang, Lianghua Xiong, Ali Nabaa, Zachary A. Young, Yang Ren, Peter Kenesei, Fan Zhang and Lianyi Chen, 2 August 2022, Additive Manufacturing.
DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2022.103068
This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Startup Fund and used resources at the UW-Madison Wisconsin Centers for Nanoscale Technology partially supported by NSF through the University of Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center. The research also used resources at the Advanced Photon Source, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility.
Thermal Defense Solutions has been 3-D printing inconel suppressors for some years now (and they are DA SCHIZ!).
And No. 22 Bicycle Company is making 3-D printed titanium bicycle frames.
https://thermalsuppressors.com/
https://22bicycles.com/
About 20 years ago I was watching a Predator feed of a Muhammadan Splodybot in Somewhereistan being disintegrated by a UAV-launched Hellfire, and two thoughts struck me.
No. 1, we need smaller missiles for anti-personnel work, because a 20-lb warhead is overkill (no pun intended). And No. 2, Unmanned combat vehicles of every sort will become the new Atomic Weapons Race because they can render mass casualties, but they're worse because the technology and the materials needed to make them are readily available.
It won't be long before someone puts together a kamikaze drone with facial recognition. Upload a digital image of your victim and it flies around looking for him. If it doesn't find him it either can strike any target of opportunity or self-destruct to limit the spread of the technology.
We've got Luddites on this forum constantly espousing that systems like the B-21 are a technological bridge to far, but high-tech is the new coin of the combat realm. There is no question but that we're very soon to see wars won by the side with the best robots.
What metal printer is 150 lb per hour ?
this outfit claims to be the largest and it is 1/10 of that
https://www.sciaky.com/largest-metal-3d-printer-available
as usual, this is technofool “comb our hair with ray guns” BS
this isnt new. People were testing AM 20+ years ago. No-one has explained how this is superior to just cutting the part out of a billet. The 3d metal properties are almost always worse.
Tom Eagar from MIT has done plenty of experimental AM, but when it is too expensive for the US Navy, no-one else is going to use it except in limited applications which he explains here.
https://youtu.be/01D4_i5L5gk?list=PLCgPBt05jaJ4MIGrgqnIWIuvpSV_E3xa5&t=2341
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