Accelerated development of aluminum alloys for additive manufacturing

增材制造（AM），又称3D打印，是指将计算机辅助绘图直接转换为逐层成品的技术；通常，这涉及到在激光的帮助下固化粉末状原料。许多人认为，增材制造技术将很快颠覆整个制造业，全球增材制造产品市场的估值正在飙升，预计到2025年，增材制造的年度经济影响将超过2500亿美元。作为金属产品增材制造的先锋力量，加拿大有望成为这一增长的主要受益者之一，因此我们的国家增材制造市场将在同一时间框架内成熟到每年140亿美元。随着加拿大对AM的影响继续积极扩大，对这种预测的信心当然是有根据的。例如，它现在是一系列领先的金属粉末生产商、增材制造设备制造商、通过增材制造商业生产金属产品的公司以及越来越多的世界级增材制造研究设施的所在地。为了充分利用加拿大在AM方面的势头，并最大限度地提高国家利用现有机会的能力，需要在几个方面进行研究。其中，合金的发展尤为关键和及时。例如，在铝增材制造的情况下，只有一种合金（AlSi10Mg）达到了ASTM的认可，而成熟的铝成形技术（锻造，铸造）可以达到600多个。HQP应努力通过加速开发用于增材制造的先进铝合金来解决这一技术差距。在这里，HQP将被赋予在生产的所有阶段完成动手实验的能力-粉末制造（气体雾化），粉末固化（激光粉末床熔融（L-PBF），激光定向能沉积（L-DED））， am后加工和材料表征。通过利用L-DED在单一构建周期内在广泛的工艺参数下生产具有独特化学成分的大量测试样品的组合方法，将加快合金发现的步伐。HQP还应调查抑制铝增材制造工业吸收的基本限制（激光反射率提高）。Bishop博士非常精通粉末冶金（PM）相关领域的创新铝粉的开发和商业化。他的团队获得专利的一些成果现在正在越来越多的突破性汽车部件的工业制造中得到利用。其中两个项目获得了大量的行业奖项，为PM行业开辟了全新的增长论坛，并促进了温室气体排放的切实减少。将他在铝粉方面的丰富经验与他最近推出的增材制造研究新设施相结合，他现在处于一个绝佳的位置，可以为他的最新挑战-增材制造领域开发和商业化创新铝粉。

Additive manufacturing (AM), a.k.a. 3D printing, refers to technologies that convert a computer aided drawing directly into a finished product in a layer-by-layer fashion; commonly, this involves a powdered feed stock that is consolidated with the aid of a laser. Viewed by many as technology that will soon disrupt the entire manufacturing enterprise, valuation of the global market for AM products is soaring upward with the annual economic impact of AM expected to surpass $250B by 2025. As a pioneering force in AM of metallic products, Canada is poised to be one of the major benefactors of this growth such that our national AM market will mature to $14B/yr over this same time frame. Confidence in such predictions is certainly warranted as Canada's influence on AM continues to expand aggressively. For instance, it is now home to a series of leading metal powder producers, AM equipment manufacturers, firms that are commercially producing metallic products via AM, and a growing list of world-class AM research facilities. To fully capitalize on Canada's momentum in AM and maximize national capacity to exploit the opportunities that exist, research is needed on several fronts. Of these, alloy development is exceptionally critical and timely. For instance, in the case of aluminum AM, only a single alloy (AlSi10Mg) has achieved ASTM recognition yet mature aluminum forming technologies (wrought, cast) can access over 600. HQP shall strive to address this technology gap by developing advanced aluminum alloys for AM in an accelerated fashion. Here, HQP will be empowered with the capacity to complete hands-on experiments at all stages of production - powder fabrication (gas atomization), powder consolidation (laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), laser directed energy deposition (L-DED)), post-AM processing, and material characterization. The pace of alloy discovery will be intensified by utilizing a combinatorial-type of approach that leverages the capacity of the L-DED to produce numerous test specimens with unique chemistries under wide ranges of process parameters in a single build cycle. HQP shall also investigate a fundamental constraint that has dampened industry uptake of aluminum AM (heightened laser reflectivity). Dr. Bishop is very well versed in the development and commercialization of innovative aluminum powders for the related field of powder metallurgy (PM). Several of the outcomes patented by his team are now exploited in the industrial fabrication of a growing number of ground-breaking automotive components. Two of these have received prolific industry awards, ushered in completely new forums of growth for the PM sector, and facilitated tangible reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Coupling his comprehensive experience with aluminum powders together with his recent launch of a new facility for AM research, he is in an excellent position to now develop and commercialize innovative aluminum powders for his latest challenge - the AM sector.