Processing and Testing of Materials using New Advanced Powder Metallurgy and Additive Manufacturing Strategies

Brochu教授的研究小组是开发和验证用于纳米结构粉末固结的先进粉末冶金工艺和基于快速凝固的添加剂制造技术的领导小组之一，该技术专注于遭受凝固开裂的材料，主要是铝合金。这项研究计划将在四个方面进一步提升他的研究的产业影响。首先，Brochu教授将开发新的表面工程技术，通过超固相线烧结来促进纳米材料的烧结。该计划将提高粉末冶金(PM)预测的2012-2016年间5.31%的经济增长率，因为低成本、性能改善的粉末(纳米颗粒)的供应将改善制造部件的性能。这将在包括汽车、生物医学和航空航天在内的各个行业中看到。其次，Brochu教授将把关于现场辅助烧结之间关系的系统研究转化为硬件原型。新型加热炉可使升温速度轻松达到1000℃/分钟，从而减少整体烧结机运行次数。由于烧结在流程图中占能源消耗的73%，这些新概念将减少粉末冶金行业的经济和能源足迹。第三，该研究计划将在三个方面推动添加剂制造技术的逐步发展：(1)提供新的战略和开发新的硬件，以获得与锻造等同的机械性能，这将绕过目前“好于铸造，差于锻造”的概念。(2)开发新的方法对具有凝固裂纹的材料进行添加制造(AM)，这种材料通常与高强度合金有关。这项计划将向几乎所有的材料家族开放AM，与目前大约商业化的8个合金家族相比，这将是一个巨大的飞跃。(3)通过合金工程设计凝固路径，以允许超细晶材料的AM，这些材料目前是通过严重塑性变形和广泛加工制造的。总体而言，该计划将在2012年为现有的18.432亿美元的全球市场做出贡献，到2017年增长到34.719亿美元，并进一步扩大AM的足迹和行业整合。(4)该计划还将开发新的本地化测试策略，以使用纳米冲击和纳米疲劳压痕技术评估更容易发生骨折的区域。其结果将是创造一种低成本和快速创新的测试技术，以评估这些先进材料的使用性能。该计划将在材料加工、表征和测试以及新硬件设计等领域培养四名新的硕士学生、六名新的博士生和一名继续攻读的博士生。培训方法将把新工艺/装置的设计与新材料的设计联系起来，并得到分析建模的支持，以抓住所有潜在的现象。HQP将发展分析工具、决策、团队合作等毕业生特质，并将通过知识产权、管理、领导力和公共演讲等软技能来增强。他们将接受针对加拿大就业市场现实的良好培训，包括涂层行业、设备设计和制造、金属材料加工和转化以及材料性能评估。

Prof. Brochu’s research group is one of the leading group to develop and validate advanced powder metallurgy processes for consolidation of nanostructured powders and rapid solidification-based additive manufacturing technologies focused on materials suffering from solidification cracking, mainly aluminum alloys. This research program will further elevate the industrial impact of his research in four fronts. Firstly, Prof. Brochu will develop new surface engineering processes to facilitate the sintering of nanostructured materials through super solidus sintering. This program will raise the powder metallurgy (PM) forecasted economical growth of 5.31% over the 2012-2016 period by the availability of low-cost improved properties powders (nanograined), which will improve the performance of the manufactured parts. This will be seen in various industries, including automotive, biomedical and aerospace. Secondly, Prof. Brochu will translate systematic studies on the relationship between field assisted sintering towards hardware prototypes. The novel furnaces will permit heating rate reaching easily 1000C/min and consequently reducing the overall sintering runs. As sintering represent 73% of the energy consumption in the flowchart, these new concepts will reduce the economical and energetic footprint of the PM industry. Thirdly, the research program will provide a step growth of the additive manufacturing technology on three fronts: (1) Provide new strategies and developing new hardware to obtain mechanical properties equivalent to wrought, which will circumvent the current concept of “better than cast, worst than wrought”. (2) Develop new approaches to perform additive manufacturing (AM) of materials suffering from solidification cracking, which are typically associated with high strength alloys. This program will open AM to almost all families of materials, which will be a quantum jump compared to the approximately currently commercialised 8 families of alloys. (3) Engineer solidification paths through alloy engineering to permit AM of ultra fine grained materials, materials that are currently fabricated by severe plastic deformation followed by extensive machining. Overall, this program will contribute to the existing global market of $1,843.2 million in 2012, and growth to $3,471.9 million by 2017, and further increase the AM footprint and industrial integration. (4) The program will also develop new localized testing strategies to assess the regions more susceptible to fracture initiation using nano-impact and nano-fatigue indentation technique. The outcome will be the creation of a low-cost and rapid innovative testing technique to assess the service properties of these advanced materials. This program will train four new Master students, six new and one continuing Ph.D students in fields including materials processing, characterization and testing, and design of new hardware. The training methodology will link the design of novel processes/devices with design of new materials and supported by analytical modeling to graps all underlying phenomena. The HQPs will develop graduate attributes such as analytical tools, decision-making, teamwork attributes, and will be augmented by soft skills such as IP, management, leadership and public speaking. They will be well trained for the reality of the Canadian employment markets, including coating industry, equipment design and fabrication, metallic materials processing and transformation, and materials performance assessment.