Nanowerk October 24, 2023 Researchers in France have shown a fatigue resistance phenomenon in nano-TiB2-decorated AlSi10Mg enabled by additive manufacturing. This fatigue resistance mechanism benefited from the three-dimensional dual-phase cellular nanostructure, which acted as a strong volumetric nanocage to prevent localized damage accumulation fatigue crack initiation. The intrinsic fatigue strength limit of nano-TiB2-decorated AlSi10Mg was shown to be close to its tensile strength. They showed that printed bulk nano-TiB2-decorated AlSi10Mg achieved fatigue resistance more than double those of other additive manufacturing Al alloys and surpassed those of high-strength wrought Al alloys. According to the researchers their method can be extended […]
Tag Archives: Additive manufacturing
Flaky compound to prevent computer chips from getting fried
Phys.org July 4, 2023 To address overheating in microchip-based devices researchers in Russia 3D printed a model of a composite radiator with different boron nitride fillings. The measured absolute values of the thermal conductivity of such a composite in the temperature range of 3–300 K strongly depend on the concentration of boron nitride. Filling the photopolymer with boron nitride led to a change in the behavior of the volt–current curves, which might have been associated with the occurrence of percolation currents during the deposition of boron nitride. The ab initio calculations showed the behavior and spatial orientation of BN flakes […]
Team uses 3D printing to strengthen a key material in aerospace, energy-generation applications
MIT News May 19, 2022 An international team of researchers (USA – MIT, Turkey) used additive manufacturing (AM) of a nickel superalloy metallic matrix composite (Ni-MMC) using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). They prepared nanoceramic-containing composite powders by high-speed blender decluttering and ball milling of as-received SiC nanowires (2 vol%) and Inconel 718 alloy powders which produced a homogeneous decoration of SiC on the surfaces of Inconel particles. Analysing the as-printed specimens revealed the dissolution of SiC nanowires during laser melting, leading to the in-situ formation of Nb- and Ti-based silicide and carbide nanoparticles. The in-situ formed nanoparticles resulted in […]
3D printing drones work like bees to build and repair structures while flying
Science Daily September 21, 2022 An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, USA – University of Pennsylvania, Switzerland) introduced aerial additive manufacturing (Aerial-AM) that utilizes a team of aerial robots inspired by natural builders such as wasps. They developed a scalable multi-robot 3D printing and path-planning framework that enabled robot tasks and population size to be adapted to variations in print geometry throughout a building mission. To validate Aerial-AM they developed BuilDrones for depositing materials during flight and ScanDrones for measuring the print quality and integrated a generic real-time model-predictive-control scheme with the Aerial-AM robots. The manufacturing accuracy was five […]
A paper battery with water switch
Nanowerk July 29, 2022 Researchers in Switzerland have developed a disposable paper battery aiming to reduce the environmental impact of single-use electronics for applications such as point of care diagnosis, smart packaging, and environmental sensing. The battery uses Zinc as a biodegradable metal anode, graphite as a nontoxic cathode material and paper as a biodegradable substrate. To facilitate additive manufacturing, they developed electrodes and current collector inks that can be stencil printed on paper to create water-activated batteries of arbitrary shape and size. The battery remains inactive until water is provided and absorbed by the paper substrate, taking advantage of […]
Researchers 3D print sensors for satellites
MIT News July 27, 2022 Researchers at MIT designed, fabricated and characterized digitally manufactured, compact retarding potential analyzers (RPAs) multi-electrode instruments that can be used as in-orbit mass spectrometers and as on-ground/in-orbit ion energy analyzers. The RPA electrode housing, which is the most critical component of the RPA, was additively manufactured in a printable glass-ceramic via vat polymerization, resulting in non-porous, high-temperature compatible, and high-vacuum compatible hardware. Four different RPA designs were synthesized to probe the ionosphere (design with floating grid alignment at the aperture level) and laboratory plasmas (designs with floating grid aperture alignment at the cluster level). Simulations […]
3D-printed ‘invisible’ fibres can sense breath, sound, and biological cells
Nanowerk October 2, 2020 Researchers in the UK 3D printed the composite fibres which are made from silver and/or semiconducting polymers. It creates a core-shell fibre structure, with a high-purity conducting fibre core wrapped by a thin protective polymer sheath, a few micrometres in diameter. The printing technique can also be used to make biocompatible fibres of a similar dimension to biological cells, which enables them to guide cell movements and ‘feel’ this dynamic process as electrical signals. The sensor was used for testing respiratory conditions such as normal breathing, rapid breathing, and simulated coughing. It significantly outperformed comparable commercial […]