| Project Detail |
Ultrafine eutectic Ti-Fe-based alloys for additive manufacturing materials
Studies on eutectic Titanium (Ti) - Iron (Fe) alloys indicate high strength and flexibility. Supported by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the UTIFE project aims to advance the development of ultrafine eutectic Ti-Fe-based alloys using selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing. The project will use advanced tomographic techniques to analyse the alloys and understand the effects of processing parameters on eutectic alloys. It will also explore SLM material processing parameters to achieve high-density, crack-free samples and investigate the mechanisms of crack formation, porosity generation, and/or healing during printing. The project will introduce new hierarchically structured eutectic Ti-Fe-based alloys of significant interest to the industry and contribute to substantial scientific insights.
UTIFE aims at further developing ultrafine eutectic Ti-Fe-based alloys to increase their maturity using selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing. The project will characterize the alloys by using advanced tomographic techniques to determine their composition-processing-microstructure-property relationships, increasing the understanding of the eutectic Ti-Fe alloy system and the effects of processing parameters during SLM on eutectic alloys as a whole. The objectives of the project are to i) explore material SLM processing parameters to obtain crack-free samples with a high material density, ii) study and understand the mechanisms of crack formation, porosity generation and/or healing during the printing process, and iii) provide a multiscale (nano to micro) 3D characterization of the material microstructure. These objectives will be met using the state-of-the-art laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) to process the eutectic alloys and determine the effects of processing parameters on the as-printed material. The material will also be printed using a state-of-the-art in-situ synchrotron Xray computed tomography (S-XCT) SLM replicator to characterize the effects of printing parameters on defect generation and microstructural evolution during printing. A full characterization using traditional and advanced characterization techniques in 2D (SEM-EBSD, TEM, XRD) and 3D (3D FIB-SEM-EBSD, TEM, XCT, S-XCT) will provide critical information about the composition-processing-microstructure relationships in the eutectic Ti-Fe alloys. This project will introduce new hierarchically-structured eutectic Ti-Fe-based alloys of high interest for industry and contribute to significant scientific insights between additive manufacturing processing parameters, eutectic microstructures, and material properties in the Ti-Fe alloy system. The insight from this project can help explore other eutectic alloy systems for the development of novel additive manufacturing materials. |
