Russia improves 3D printing technology for aerospace composite materials
Sputnik news agency and radio
The research was conducted by scientists from the National Research Technological University MISIS in cooperation with their colleagues from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
A team of scientists from the Russian National Research Technological University MISIS (NUST MISIS) have managed to improve the technology of alumina 3D printing, which helps increase hardness of materials by at least one and a half times.
The study titled “In-situ synthesis and characterization of powdery nanocomposite “carbon nanotubes/nanoalumina” was published in the journal Composites Communications.
In the research, MISIS scientists pointed, in particular, to the development of special nano carbon additive which makes it possible to improve the quality of 3D-printed aerospace composite materials.
NUST MISIS professor Alexander Gromov, in turn, said that scientists were able to improve “properties of [3D] printing powder” by “changing its chemical and phase composition and introducing additional components into the main matrix”.
Gromov referred in this context to carbon nanofibers with high thermal conductivity, which adds to minimising “temperature gradients between printed layers during the synthesis of products, at the stage of selective laser melting”.
According to him, this helps to prevent possible inhomogeneities, in the microstructure of the material.
Currently, alumina 3D printing is mainly used to produce high-tech parts for aviation and space industries. Given that the presence of even the slightest defects in printed structures is critical to the safety of equipment, MISIS’s alumina 3D printing-related development is certainly of great importance.
The study was carried out jointly with specialists from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In the future, the NUST MISIS’s research team plans to determine optimal conditions for selective laser melting of new composite powders, as well as to develop a technology for post-processing and industrial use of synthesized products.
