Design and Development of a Solid Freeform Fabrication Process for the Realization of Metal Parts of Designed Mesostructure

Christopher B. Williams

Research Overview

Metallic Foams	Lattice Block Material	Linear Cellular Alloys

     Low-density cellular materials, metallic bodies with gaseous voids, are a unique class of materials that have high strength, good energy absorption characteristics, good thermal and acoustic insulation properties, accompanied by an extremely low mass.  Unfortunately, current cellular material manufacturing processes severely limit a designer’s ability to control the part mesostructure, the material composition, and the part macrostructure.  The opportunity to improve the design of existing products and to reap the full benefits of cellular materials in new applications drives our exploration of a manufacturing process that would provide sufficient flexibility to empower a designer to create an ideal mesostructure for the (multiple) design goal(s) specific to the part’s application.

      As such, we look towards the use of layer-based additive manufacturing (AM) as a means of providing the design freedom that is currently absent from cellular material manufacturing processes.  Since current direct metal AM techniques do not offer an adequate means of satisfying the unique requirements of cellular materials, we are carrying out the design, embodiment, and analysis of a new AM process that is dedicated to the manufacture of cellular materials.  Specifically, we look to the layer-based additive fabrication of metal oxide powders followed by post-processing in a reducing atmosphere as a means of fabricating three-dimensional, low-density cellular metal parts with designed mesostructure.

     This research was presented in its early stages at the 2006 NSF Design, Service, and Manufacturing Grantees and Research Conference student poster session (July 24, St. Louis, MO).  The project summary that I submitted for the associated student travel grant competition and the poster that I presented at the conference provide a good overview of this research and its goals.

Publications

• Williams, C. B., Rosen, D. W., 2007, "Manufacturing Metallic Parts with Designed Mesostructure via Three-Dimensional Printing of Metal Oxide Powder," 17^th Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, Austin, TX. [paper] [presentation]
• Williams, C. B., Mistree, F., Rosen, D. W., 2007, "Manufacturing Cellular Materials via Three-Dimensional Printing of Spray-Dried Metal Oxide Ceramic Powder," 3^rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping, Leiria, Portugal. [paper] [presentation]
• Williams, C. B., Mistree, F., Rosen, D. W., 2005, "Towards the Design of a Layer-Based Additive Manufacturing Process for the Realization of Metal Parts of Designed Mesostructure," 16^th Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, Austin, TX., pp. 217-230. [paper] [presentation]
• Williams, C. B., Mistree, F., Rosen, D. W., 2005, "Investigation of Additive Manufacturing Processes for the Manufacture of Parts with Designed Mesostructure," 10^th ASME Design for Manufacturing and the Life Cycle, Long Beach, CA. Paper Number: DETC2005/DFMLC-84832. [paper] [presentation]