Twospoons
International Hazard
Posts: 1282
Registered: 26-7-2004
Location: Middle Earth
Member Is Offline
Mood: A trace of hope...
|
|
metal composites for 3d printing
I was thinking about the usual process for 3d printing in metal - namely laser sintering of metal powder - and the inherent limitation of needing
enough laser power to heat the metal powder to sintering or melting point. Higher melt point metals tend to need more power, but they also tend to be
the structurally more useful ones, being harder and tougher.
It occurred to me that a better option might be to use a binary metal powder, combining a low melting metal with a high melting one, such that the
laser only needs to melt the low temperature metal which then alloys with the high melting one to form a superior material. If the alloy had a high
melt point so much the better as it means the power would solidify as it was heated.
It also occurred to me the high melt metal could be replaced with a ceramic of some kind (like nitrides or oxides), one which could be wet by the low
melting metal. The result would be a metal-ceramic composite.
Now I am not a metallurgist, so I really have no starting point for choosing the components of the binary powder mix (apart from the obvious zinc +
copper). So I'm throwing this idea out into the world in the hope one of you might find it interesting enough to make a few suggestions.
[Edited on 22-3-2018 by Twospoons]
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
|
|
|
elementcollector1
International Hazard
Posts: 2684
Registered: 28-12-2011
Location: The Known Universe
Member Is Offline
Mood: Molten
|
|
This would essentially act like a composite mix of random spherical particles of the higher-MP metal in a matrix of the lower-MP metal. The modulus (a
basic indicator of the strength) of the system is given by the following equation:
Enet = E1V1+ E2V2
Where E represents the elastic modulus of a component, and V its volume fraction in the overall system.
So, at the most basic estimate (ignoring adherence, dissolution, and a bunch of other effects), if you had a mixture of a tiny amount of lower-MP
metal that was just enough to glue all the higher-MP metal together, then it would have a modulus (and general mechanical properties) pretty close to
that of the higher-MP metal.
You'd need to research which combo of metals would be the best - I'd imagine steel/iron and something that wets to steel very easily would be a good
starting candidate. Better yet, the lower MP metal would have good tensile properties, skewing the 'range' of modulus values closer to that of the
steel.
[Edited on 3/22/2018 by elementcollector1]
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
