3D-printed "metamaterial" is stronger than anything in nature(freethink.com)
freethink.com
3D-printed "metamaterial" is stronger than anything in nature
https://www.freethink.com/hard-tech/metamaterial
9 comments
Integza posted an interesting video about novel applications of porous metal printed parts. Really excited to see how this develops.
What temperature does it melt at? I'm curious to know more failure more.
I'm also curious how the human immune system reacts to it, though I'm sure it's not known yet.
I'm also curious how the human immune system reacts to it, though I'm sure it's not known yet.
It’s a titanium alloy (Ti-6-4) that’s commonly used in medical implants, and it probably melts at pretty high temp - the wrought form is used in turbine engine compression disks
This is like a 3D printed metal scaffold, in the paper they’re doing compression tests. Probably more likely structural applications than medical I’m guessing
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-6Al-4V
This is like a 3D printed metal scaffold, in the paper they’re doing compression tests. Probably more likely structural applications than medical I’m guessing
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-6Al-4V
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7634595/ ← from a search for qualities searched for in implants.
"The primary advantage of TiAlV over CoCrMb is a lower modulus of elasticity. This results in decreased stress shielding and subsequent favorable femoral remodeling."
This new material might do well there..
"TiAlV has been shown to achieve excellent bone ingrowth into porous surfaces."
Well, given they printed this structure almost as a sponge it probably would do well on that front too.
To be honest I don’t know too much about the biomedical side, I’m probably jumping to conclusions on what the materials research directions are there - originally I was just going to joke about how you might hope it doesn’t hit its melting temperature if it’s used in a medical implant as it starts to melt around 1600 C
What kinds of parts are currently made with these of printers? I assume they are slow that it takes really interesting shapes or tolerances to warrant not using traditional manufacturing.
GE's LEAP engine, for example, uses 3D printed parts, I think for the fuel injector nozzles.
This is a laser method, but binder jet printing is getting cheaper and easier by the year but it is still fairly slow.
This is a laser method, but binder jet printing is getting cheaper and easier by the year but it is still fairly slow.
Strong enough for a space elevator?
The lattice structures shown in the article are likely optimized for compression strength. Tensile strength is the limiting factor for space elevators. Very different design constraints.
Not even close. They optimized for strength-to-weight ratios, which is great for a ton of things, but a space elevator needs insane levels of brute strength. Were not sure the material can exist in our current understanding of physics
Don't forget that space elevators need more than brute strength: they need to be immune to all sorts of cosmic radiation and space debris, they presumably need to be electrically conductive since the elevator carriage will need a lot of power to travel upwards a few thousand KMs before their passengers starve to death, they need to be robust against the elevator carriage's friction, and probably a few other things.
> they presumably need to be electrically conductive since the elevator carriage will need a lot of power to travel upwards a few thousand KMs before their passengers starve to death
Even a slow space elevator that can only be used for transporting cargo would already be extremely useful. You could even load it with a container filled with life support if you really need to ship living cargo.
Even a slow space elevator that can only be used for transporting cargo would already be extremely useful. You could even load it with a container filled with life support if you really need to ship living cargo.
An orbit to ground space elevator would indeed be challenging, but the cable doesn't have to go all the way to the ground to be useful. Shorter tethers have many applications, and those can be made out of non-exotic materials (e.g. Kevlar).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tether
There are still challenges, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tether
There are still challenges, of course.
"Great for a ton of things" heh
Not strong enough to survive collisions of satellites with the space elevator.
I thought limpet teeth were the strongest material known?
Has anyone tried printing this with an FDM printer?
It’s not that kind of 3D printing, it’s laser powder bed fusion [0]. I don’t know a lot about FDM but I’d be kind of surprised if you could do Ti-64 and get the same mechanical strength (but I’d be interested to know if I’m off base) because I think it’s like metal embedded in polymer that you have to sinter post-build? Compared to basically doing a continuous laser weld with the powder bed method
However, here [1] is a cool paper looking at optimizing similar meta material structures using polymer filament printing - if you could do something similar in metal FDM that might be interesting?
0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_melting
1: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1708
However, here [1] is a cool paper looking at optimizing similar meta material structures using polymer filament printing - if you could do something similar in metal FDM that might be interesting?
0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_melting
1: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1708
I'm not sure what difference that would make?
I mean, obviously metal is going to be stronger than fused plastic, but I gather here that what makes it stronger than normal is the structure.
Wouldn't FDM plastic objects made with this structure be stronger than FDM objects made with a more conventional structure? That would be very useful even if it's not as strong as metal.
I think I'm going to print up some test pieces and do destructive testing.
I mean, obviously metal is going to be stronger than fused plastic, but I gather here that what makes it stronger than normal is the structure.
Wouldn't FDM plastic objects made with this structure be stronger than FDM objects made with a more conventional structure? That would be very useful even if it's not as strong as metal.
I think I'm going to print up some test pieces and do destructive testing.
Sorry - I didn’t mean to come off as discouraging, that’s part of why I linked the BEAR paper!
I agree in relative terms, I’d think this cellular structure should have better compressive strength than a different structure made of the same material
I guess where I’m coming from is that FDM titanium (if you can realistically print that, I don’t know) isn’t going to have the same properties as SLM titanium, so the headline strength (in absolute terms) is probably not achievable in FDM Ti
I agree in relative terms, I’d think this cellular structure should have better compressive strength than a different structure made of the same material
I guess where I’m coming from is that FDM titanium (if you can realistically print that, I don’t know) isn’t going to have the same properties as SLM titanium, so the headline strength (in absolute terms) is probably not achievable in FDM Ti
Observation: it took longer to respond to the GDPR popup than read the article. And to be frank, I just skimmed/quick read the descriptions of each choice.
They've added a lot of direct compression "paths" through the vertical web so it's not surprising it's unloaded the corners where the stress used to "go around" the void.