Researchers from IMDEA Supplies Institute and the Technical College of Madrid (UPM) have developed a design-driven methodology that considerably will increase the deformability of 3D printed nickel-titanium – or nitinol – metamaterials.
Nitinol is broadly utilized in biomedical units and high-performance engineering functions for its superelastic and shape-memory properties. LPBF has lengthy been thought-about the main additive manufacturing method for the alloy, however has additionally traditionally produced elements with roughly half the deformability of conventionally manufactured nitinol. Additively processed powders additionally produce extra brittle outcomes.
“Whereas LPBF stays the gold commonplace of nitinol additive manufacturing, the shape-memory and superelastic properties of those additively manufactured NiTi elements don’t but match these achieved with extra standard industrial processes,” stated Carlos Aguilar Vega, a researcher at IMDEA Supplies and UPM.
“Successfully, which means that we now have thus far been unable to harness the improved management of mechanical efficiency by design, or the geometrical complexity provided by 3D printing strategies within the additive manufacturing of nitinol constructions.”
The analysis crew developed an algorithm-based design framework to create interwoven metamaterial constructions — together with meshes, spheres and rings — that amplify mechanical efficiency via geometry. The method produced two major structural households: tubular lattices and cylindrical woven architectures. Mechanical testing confirmed that stiffness, load-bearing capability, vitality absorption and toughness may very well be modulated throughout a number of orders of magnitude via design alone.
To confirm structural accuracy and guarantee printability, the crew cross-referenced computed tomography scans of printed samples in opposition to digital fashions from 3D printing slicer software program.
“This work represents the primary demonstration of design-based optimization of additively manufactured superelastic nitinol, displaying that mechanical drawbacks inherent to present additive manufacturing processes will be successfully mitigated via structure,” Aguilar Vega acknowledged.
Prof. Andrés Díaz Lantada, co-author from UPM and IMDEA Supplies, described the constructions as among the many most complex-shaped woven nitinol parts ever created.
“Promisingly, they symbolize a breakthrough within the additive manufacturing of superelastic alloys and display the potential for attaining self-supported NiTi wovens by way of LPBF strategies,” he stated.
The analysis crew included IMDEA’s Óscar Contreras, Dr. Muzi Li, Dr. Vanesa Martínez, Amalia San Román and Prof. Jon Molina, alongside UPM’s Rodrigo Zapata Martínez.
