Printable aluminum alloy sets strength records, may enable lighter aircraft parts

MIT News ^ | October 07, 2025 | Jennifer Chu

[Red Badger]

Aviation Ping!..................

[Red Badger]

Ping!................

[DAC21]

But but what about that new wood developed by Professor Hu at Yale?

[Red Badger]

Yellow wood?..............

[rdcbn1]

This is a huge advancement because the mechanical properties of additive manufactured components have traditionally been lower than that of parts made using traditional methods.

To have a process that combines the manufacturability advantages of 3D printing additive manufacturing and an end product with a high quality, high strength end material is revolutionary.

[sasquatch]

I may have missed it but what are the alloy elements?

[antidemoncrat]

MIT engineers developed a way to 3D print alloys that are much stronger than conventionally manufactured versions.”

Once again proves MIT should focus on science and skip the protests.

[sasquatch]

It’s in the abstract:

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202509507

[Carry_Okie]

One would think the arrangement of these alloys could be organized by FEA according to how the part is to be stressed. That would reduce the magnitude of deformation and cold working, thus taking the part long past its traditional fatigue limit.

[Red Badger]

[Carry_Okie]

The ability to arrange the crystal structure in a part according to how it will be used is an amazing tool. I’d bet they will be able to organize surface finishes too.

Composite structures are great, but reusing those materials may be difficult at end of life. One wonders about recyclability.

[Red Badger]

I wonder if they tried non-metallic elements and not just metallic ones?.......

[cableguymn]

transparent aluminum? I saw a star trek movie about that

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Carry_Okie]

I wonder if they tried non-metallic elements and not just metallic ones?.......

Think of concrete with aggregate in it with a twist. To build and organize stresses in the crystal lattice, thus increasing the hardness and potentially toughness of the material. If it can diffuse organized stresses, stress concentrations are thus inhibited and the chance of cracking reduced.

But again, how do you separate those constituents to recycle it? It's not a small matter with aluminum because of the energy cost in its initial refinement and the prospect for landfills, never mind the mining, trucking and energy costs in producing the soup for the initial process. I suppose one could crunch up the material at end of life and use it as an aggregate. Ultra-light concrete!

[Red Badger]

They would have to do it like they do plastics of all different kinds.

Separate it into the different alloys then melt down and recycle..................

[Carry_Okie]

"Separate" in this case sounds expensive.

BTW, we should be simply burning plastics for electrical generation. The Germans have done it for over a decade. It's time to stop polluting the Pacific Ocean with it.

[sasquatch]

Looked at this company for (relatively) light weight stages for step/repeat cameras.

https://ergaerospace.com/metal-foam-material/

[Ancesthntr]

Good, now we can make better printable firearms.