Amorphous metal (metal glass) is also called amorphous alloy. It not only has the advantages of metal and glass, but also overcomes their respective disadvantages, such as glass is fragile and has no ductility. Amorphous metal is twice as strong as steel, but it is much lighter than steel and has better elasticity.
Amorphous metals are isotropic, which means that if the additive manufacturing technology is used to make amorphous alloys, no matter what3D printingThe material properties are always the same for which construction direction is adopted.3D printingNot only can it be used to manufacture extremely sturdy parts, but it can also provide engineers with greater design freedom.
The manufacturing of amorphous metal is a challenging process, especially the amorphous metallic glass that usually needs to be higher than its melting temperature and quickly cooled to avoid crystallization. The manufacturing process requires extraordinary cooling rates and limits the thickness they can be formed because thicker parts are difficult to cool quickly.Amorphous metal3D printingCommercialization is still in its early stages.
Heraeus Amorphous Metals, a subsidiary of Heraeus Technology Group, has established a cooperation with the German TRUMPF Group to jointly develop amorphous metals3D printingResearch to promote amorphous metal parts by improving process and cost performance3D printingBecome the standard production process in the workshop.In the future, amorphous metals3D printingIt may benefit many fields, such as high-stress components and lightweight components used in the aerospace and mechanical engineering industries. Due to their biocompatibility, these materials are also ideal for medical devices.
Expansion sleeve is able to use amorphous metal3D printingOne of the parts to improve performance. Due to the high elasticity of amorphous metal, the casing produced from this material is more easily deformed than the traditional casing.Image source: Heraeus Amorphous Metal
3D printingAmorphous metal, commercialization is already on the way
According to TRUMPF Germany, amorphous metal is a metallic material formed by the rapid cooling of liquid metal.3D printingThe equipment can use this material to manufacture complex and large-sized parts-this is not possible with other production processes. therefore,3D printingTechnology will open up new industrial applications for amorphous metals.In addition, with the help of3D printing, Amorphous metal can also exert its great potential in lightweight design. On the premise of meeting the functional requirements, the amount of material and the weight of the parts are controlled to a minimum.Amorphous metal itself is very light, so it will3D printingCombined with amorphous metal, it can meet the lightweight needs of various applications.3D printingTechnology can make the production of amorphous metal parts more convenient and have a wider range of applications. With this technology, users can directly manufacture complete parts without having to produce individual parts first and then assemble them into finished products.
TRUMPF Group TruPrint 2000 3D printingequipment.Image source: TRUMPF Group
Amorphous metal parts3D printingThe application of technology in the industrial field is still in its infancy.This cooperation will help accelerate the development of amorphous metals3D printingProcess, improve the surface quality of parts, and ultimately help customers reduce costs. Heraeus Amorphous Metals and TRUMPF will enhance the applicability of this technology in more applications, while opening up some new applications.Amorphous metals have application potential in many industries, such as additive manufacturing technology (ie3D printing) One of the most important industries-medical devices.TRUMPF Group said that this cooperation will be TRUMPF Industrial3D printingThe solution is a great opportunity to further develop this key market.
In this collaboration, Heraeus Amorphous Metal optimized its amorphous alloy for use in3D printing, And customized suitable materials for TRUMPF Group’s TruPrint equipment.
TRUMPF Group stated that the newly released TruPrint 2000 is an ideal choice for printing amorphous metals. The equipment is equipped with a powder preparation station, which can realize unpacking and printing parts and powder processing in an inert protective gas, and unused powder will be recycled. This design is essential for amorphous metals, because such materials can react quickly with oxygen. At the same time, TruPrint 2000 is equipped with two TRUMPF 300W fiber lasers, which can be deployed in the entire molding warehouse of the printer at the same time, which greatly reduces the processing time of a single part. With a spot diameter of only 55 microns, users can produce amorphous metal parts with extremely high surface quality in small or large batches. The molten pool monitoring function can automatically monitor and analyze the quality of the molten pool during processing, so as to find process deviations as early as possible.
Due to the long-range disorder and short-range order of the arrangement of amorphous metal atoms, the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties all present a series of excellent characteristics that traditional crystal alloys do not have. However, amorphous alloys in a metastable state can only be obtained at a relatively fast cooling rate, and the copper mold casting method commonly used at present can only produce amorphous alloys with a smaller critical size. In addition, because bulk amorphous alloys have serious room temperature brittleness problems, they are difficult to machine at room temperature. Molds for components with complex shapes cannot or are difficult to manufacture, which makes it difficult to obtain precise and complex amorphous alloy components. This has become another bottleneck restricting the application of amorphous alloys.Two metals3D printingTechnology is pushing amorphous metals to overcome the difficulties of traditional processing technology, pushing amorphous metals to achieve brand-new design possibilities, and expanding their applications in industry.
Selective laser melting: larger and more complex parts
Heraeus released the Laser Melting (SLM) through constituency in April 20193D printingAmorphous metal gear manufactured by technology. According to Heraeus, this is by far the world’s largest amorphous metal component. They are breaking the boundaries of amorphous metal manufacturing and opening up new design possibilities for amorphous metal for the manufacturing industry.
one3D printingThe amorphous metal gear adopts a compact design and weighs 2 kg. Due to the high cooling rate required for this material in excess of 1,000 Kelvin/sec, previously only small parts could be produced from amorphous metals.Developed by Heraeus3D printingThe amorphous metal gear adopts a topology optimized structure, which can reduce the weight of the gear by 50% compared with the traditional manufacturing process. Heraeus passes SLM 3D printingTechnology redefines the limitations of traditional technology in terms of the size and design complexity of amorphous metal gears, and changes the design possibilities of this type of material.
Laser cladding: high cooling efficiency, no size limitation…
How to break through the critical size limit of amorphous alloys and the preparation and processing of complex components is the key to expanding its application in related fields. In recent years, laser cladding (DED Directed Energy Deposition) technology has provided an opportunity to solve these difficulties. Laser cladding is a point-by-point discrete cladding deposition method. The laser heating area of each point is small, and the heat of the molten pool can quickly diffuse to the substrate, making the cooling rate of the laser molten pool much greater than that of amorphous alloys. The critical cooling rate makes it possible to avoid crystallization in the molten pool during the condensation process, and then obtain an amorphous state, which provides the possibility to prepare amorphous alloys without size limitation.In addition, the laser3D printingUsing metal powder as raw material, the metal powder is melted layer by layer through a high-energy laser beam, and the digital model is directly used to complete the “near-end forming” manufacturing of fully dense, high-performance, and complex metal parts in one step. This is the preparation of complex amorphous metal parts. Alloy structure provides ideal means.
Dalian Jiaotong University provides the possibility for the application of amorphous alloys as gradient materials in the functional field, and expands the application range of amorphous alloys.The study found that the gradient structure of the amorphous alloy is due to the coaxial powder feeding laser3D printingDifferent degrees of crystallization caused by different thermal histories experienced by different printing layers in the process are caused. This research result not only provides a new method for preparing large-scale amorphous alloys with complex shapes, but also promotes the large-scale application of high-performance amorphous alloys in engineering and functional fields.
Similar to the cladding deposition method used by Dalian Jiaotong University, California Institute of Technology has also adopted a similar technology to manufacture amorphous metals. The method of California Institute of Technology to manufacture amorphous metals is: melting the surface of the first layer of metal alloy at high temperature; This layer of molten metal alloy is rapidly cooled and solidified to form the first layer of amorphous metal; then the next layer of processing is performed on this basis. In this process, “spraying technology” is applied to each layer, including plasma spraying, arc spraying and other methods. The raw materials that can be used in “spraying technology” include: metal wire and metal powder.According to the market research of 3D Science Valley, this “spraying technology” is DED direct energy deposition3D printingTechnology.
Today, the commercialization of additive manufacturing of amorphous metals is on the way. Heraeus Amorphous Metals, a subsidiary of the Heraeus Group, is committed to the development and processing of amorphous metals, as well as the development of near-net shape processing solutions.Currently, owns TRUMPF Group3D printingCustomers of the device can now use it3D printingMachining of zirconium alloys provided by Heraeus Amorphous Metals can also be ordered directly from Heraeus Amorphous Metals3D printingOf amorphous metal parts.In the future, Heraeus Amorphous Metals and TRUMPF Group also hope to use copper alloys and titanium alloys for3D printing.
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