SBIR Phase I: Reactive Additive Manufacturing

该SBIR第一阶段项目解决了先进3D打印所需材料不足的问题。3D打印现在和将来都可能被用来生产涵盖日常生活方方面面的产品。目前的技术主要集中在航空航天和医疗领域。需要新的金属材料和更有效的加工方法来过渡到其他更普遍的市场。该项目旨在通过一种补充现有技术的新生产技术来扩大材料选择。3D打印行业的增长将把非常有竞争力的制造业工作岗位带回美国。该项目将研究一种创新的反应性添加剂制造(RAM)工艺的可行性，以制造一系列材料，包括镍金属基复合材料、碳化钨复合材料和镍钛金属间化合物。每个材料系统都将设计、制造和表征一系列性能，包括微观结构、产品物相、密度、孔隙率和硬度。对于三种材料系统中的每一种，迭代开发过程将包括修改成分和工艺参数，以确定它们对材料微观结构和性能的影响，并确定RAM工艺用于商业生产每种材料类型的可行性。这项活动的预期结果是，RAM工艺将被证明对一个或多个所调查的材料系统是可行的。这项工作的成果将得到进一步发展，并随后将导致用于已在使用的商用粉床熔融添加剂制造系统的新型材料、混合物和RAM工艺参数的商业化和销售。

This SBIR Phase I project addresses the lack of materials available for advanced 3D printing. 3D printing is and will likely be used to produce products that encompass every aspect of day-to-day life. Current technology is primarily focused on the aerospace and medical fields. New metallic materials and more efficient processing methods are needed to transition to other more ubiquitous markets. This project is aimed at broadening the materials selection through a new production technique that complements existing technologies. The growth of the 3D printing industry will bring very competitive manufacturing jobs back to The United States.This project will investigate the feasibility of an innovative reactive additive manufacturing (RAM) process to create a range of materials including nickel metal matrix composites, tungsten carbide composites, and nickel titanium intermetallic compounds. Each material system will be designed, fabricated, and characterized for a range of properties including microstructure, product phases, density, porosity, and hardness. For each of the three materials systems, the iterative development process will include modification of composition and process parameters to determine their effect on the material microstructure and properties and determine the feasibility of the RAM process to produce each material type commercially. The expected outcome of this activity is that the RAM process will be proven feasible for one or more of the investigated materials systems. The results of this work will be developed further and will subsequently lead to commercialization and sales of the novel materials mixtures and RAM process parameters for use in commercial powder bed fusion additive manufacturing systems already in use.