In situ 3D Printing of ‘Un-printable’ High-performance Engineering Alloys

Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) holds the potential to transform the manufacturing sector. However, the fast solidification rates occurring during LAM encourage undesirable effects such as epitaxial grain growth and hot-tearing. These effects are detrimental to the strength, fatigue life and fracture toughness of the printed material. The huge industrial potential of LAM would be further unlocked by tailoring the ‘un-printable’ high-performance engineering alloys for the ultra-fast non-equilibrium solidification process. It is necessary to understand the highly transient mechanisms occurring during rapid solidification. Here, we propose to couple our dedicated in situ and operando DED-LAM system (built with support from the ERC-StG-2020 project GAMMA # 946959) with ID19’s ultra-fast imaging (> 40 kHz) and superior phase contrast to create a unique platform for AM high-performance engineering alloys development to achieve crack-free microstructures.