SGER: Preliminary Investigation of Selective Volumetric Sintering of Powder Metallurgy Parts Using Microwaves

本研究的目的是对粉末冶金零件的微波选择性体积烧结（SVS）进行初步研究。使SVS成为可能的物理现象是当金属粉末受到微波时由于介电损耗而产生的加热。产生的热量与空间位置上电场强度的平方成正比。该方法是利用相控阵天线选择性地将电场集中在一定体积的金属粉末内，直接就地烧结复杂的三维图案。提出的研究将研究电磁-传热联合问题，以开发烧结形状的精确形状控制方法。目前的无固体（SFF）制造技术仅限于制造一次性原型，因为这些工艺的二维分层性质导致了高单位零件制造时间。如果成功，这项研究将导致一种全新的制造工艺，该工艺将能够利用部件中材料的三维空间分布来大幅减少单位零件的制造时间。在保留传统SFF工艺的可重构性和形状创建能力的同时，新工艺将具有传统批量生产技术的吞吐量，从而实现大规模定制制造。高级发现和学习将通过研究生和本科生参与这项研究、在课程中传播以及在期刊和会议记录中发表的出版物来解决。社会效益将通过这项工作与可持续制造和保持美国在制造业的技术优势的关系来解决。

The objective of this SGER research is the preliminary investigation of Selective Volumetric Sintering (SVS) of powder metallurgy parts using microwaves. The physical phenomenon that enables SVS is the heating due to dielectric loss when metal powders are subjected to microwaves. The heat generated is proportional to the square of the electric field strength at the spatial location. The approach is to use phase array antennae to selectively concentrate electric field within a volume of metal powder to directly sinter in place complex three-dimensional patterns. The proposed research will investigate the combined Electromagnetic-Heat transfer problem to develop methods for precise shape control of the sintered shape. Current Solid Free From (SFF) manufacturing techniques are limited to manufacturing one-off prototypes because of the high unit part manufacturing time resulting from the two-dimensional layered nature of these processes. If successful, this research will lead to a radically new manufacturing process that will be able to take advantage of the three dimensional spatial distribution of material in a component to drastically reduce unit part manufacturing time. While retaining the re-configurability and shape creation ability of traditional SFF processes, the new process will have the throughput of traditional mass production techniques, thus enabling mass customization manufacturing. Advanced Discovery and Learning will be addressed through the participation of both graduate and undergraduate students in this research, dissemination in courses and through publications in journals and conference proceedings. Benefits to society will be addressed through the relationship of this work to Sustainable Manufacturing and maintaining American's technological edge in manufacturing.