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OxMet Technologies : Alloys by Design
Alloys by Design: The future of materials for Additive Manufacturing There is no shortage of Additive Manufacturing machines humming away in research laboratories, producing test pieces and exhibits for trade shows, but the hard truth is that relatively few are making components for serial production. In part, this is because the world is still waiting for materials which enable the technology to fulfil its true potential. In this article, Rebecca Gingell and colleagues from OxMet Technologies, Oxford, UK, explain how the company is approaching the design of novel alloys for AM, and reflect on its progress so far.
For five thousand years, whenever a new manufacturing method was invented, new alloys were never far behind. The techniques used to develop these alloys have evolved from the enthusiastic addition of arsenic to copper to make bronze, to the use of super-precise probes to assess atom distribution in modern alloys. Ultimately, however, the performance of components has been highest when they’re made from alloys which have been tailored to the specific demands of the manufacturing process by which they are made. Additive Manufacturing is not likely to be any different. While developers are having some success using legacy alloys in Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and wire-based AM, the performance of AM components can be lower than cast or forged parts when produced from the same alloys, and many high-performing alloys are not amenable to the repeated melting entailed by most AM processes. A new generation of alloys is required; not just to overcome these challenges, but also to take advantage of the new alloy design opportunities afforded by AM technology.
Vol. 5 No. 4 © 2019 Inovar Communications Ltd
OxMet, based in Oxfordshire, UK, is the developer and operator of a proprietary computational platform for the design and optimisation of new alloys. The company is currently commercialising a new series of nickel alloys, the ABD®-XAM series, which has been designed from a clean sheet for the specific demands of AM.
1100
1000
The range promises a combination of performance and AM processability unlikely to be matched simply by empirical modification of existing alloys. This article provides an overview of the ABD platform and how it can be applied to the development of alloys for AM, and reports on some of the results achieved to date.
New manufacturing methods call for new superalloys Temperature for 1000 hr creep life at 137 MPa (°C)
NASAIR100
MarM200Hf MarM246 MarM200 Rene80
900
IN713C U700
PWA1480 MarM247 MarM247 IN792
TMS-26 Rene N5 CMSX-4 PWA1484
SRR99 TMD-5 TM321
IN738LC
Manufacturing method:
N115
Wrought Conventionally cast
N90
Directionally solidified Single crystal
N80A N80
700 1940
CM186LC
TM-70
N105 N100 U500 Waspalloy
800
TMS-162 EPM-102 TMS-82 MC-NG TMS-75 Rene N6 CMSX-10
© Roger C. Reed 2006, 1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
Fig. 1 As new methods of manufacturing superalloys emerge, new alloys are developed to take advantage of the new process
Metal Additive Manufacturing | Winter 2019
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