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Additive manufacturing

Unusual microstructures by 3D printing

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 1223–1224 (2022)Cite this article

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Additive manufacturing imparts defects in as-built titanium alloy microstructures, which form internally twinned nanoprecipitates with heat treatment to yield attractive mechanical properties.

Additive manufacturing (AM), or three-dimensional (3D) printing, of metals and alloys involves building a part layer-by-layer by moving a heat source that melts and solidifies powders or wire feedstocks. In metal AM, non-equilibrium processes typically evolve under large temperature gradients (103–107 K m−1), high solidification rates (10−3–1 m s−1) and cyclic heating/cooling, which may produce unusual microscopic structures and mechanical properties not attainable by conventional manufacturing processes. Now, writing in Nature Materials, Yuman Zhu and colleagues report ultrastrong titanium alloys (tensile strengths over 1,600 MPa) with suitable ductility, by taking advantage of defect structures produced by laser powder bed fusion, followed by simple heat treatment to form dense, internally twinned nanoprecipitates1.

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Fig. 1: Observed Beta-C Ti alloy microstructure evolution with AM and heat treatment.
Fig. 2: Light optical micrograph after a laser track melt in Ti-10-2-3.

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  1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA

    Amy J. Clarke

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  1. Amy J. Clarke
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Correspondence to Amy J. Clarke.

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Clarke, A.J. Unusual microstructures by 3D printing. Nat. Mater. 21, 1223–1224 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01385-0

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