About Additive Manufacturing and New Materials
Additive manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology enabling sustainable manufacturing and digital industrial transformation. AM methods do open doors to the design and synthesis of new materials having chemical composition and phases impossible in conventional materials. This technology, nonetheless, brings up new challenges for researchers as the additively manufactured materials often have a non-equilibrium microstructure, contain metastable phases, and possess a new set of properties different from the standard. Understanding the influence of manufacturing parameters on microstructure formation processes, and further the influence of microstructure on properties of AM materials is a task for modern materials scientists.
The additive manufacturing laboratory (AT-LAB) at KAU is equipped with a laser beam powder bed fusion Renishaw AM400 3D printer, but research interests are extended to other methods like electron beam powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition, wire ark additive manufacturing, and others. Research in AM includes the development of process parameters, investigation of microstructure and properties, surface and tribological characterization, and machinability properties. Stainless steels, tool steels, high-entropy alloys, Ni-base alloys, and Ti-alloys are just a few of many other classes of materials that were investigated. The additive manufacturing research is also focused on the synthesis of new materials. A special interest is paid to in-situ alloying, a synthesis of new non-equilibrium materials from mixtures of elemental and pre-alloyed powder with full rapid remelting by a laser beam. For example, Ti6Al4V + Cu and AISI 316L + Cu in-situ alloys with antibacterial properties or CrFeCoNi + (Al, Ti) promising for high-temperature applications were investigated.
The research area additive manufacturing and new materials has a close collaboration with the Mechanical properties of the high-performance materials and computational materials mechanics research areas. All researchers have expertise and access to all advanced electron microscopy and mechanical test and fatigue methods, providing high-quality multiscale investigations for a detailed understanding of the AM material.