LIFT, the Detroit-based national manufacturing innovation institute, announced it has awarded a "U LIFT Challenge" project award to the University of Central Florida to further explore metallic alloys used in additive manufacturing (AM).
The university team will assess and establish thermokinetic criteria to determine printability and buildability of metallic alloys for powder bed fusion (PBF) AM in order to accelerate the discovery of new AM-specific alloys as well as component-ready manufacturing of commercial alloys.
"While PBF is emerging as a smart technology platform allowing for customized manufacturing of component with nearly unlimited geometry and design freedom, the current approach links parameters directly to microstructure, without due consideration for thermophysical properties of alloy/composition, leading to limited design capability and only valid within the experimental data available," said a company spokesperson.
The spokesperson continued, "The ability to design and develop new or modify existing commercial alloys will allow for rapid design and assessment of metallic alloys for customized manufacturing and advantageous applications in hypersonics, lightweight armor, weapon systems, space, legacy parts and airframe structures."
"Our team is looking forward to working with LIFT and advancing AM technologies," said Dr. Yongho Sohn, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida. "Advancing new materials and new processes are key to the future of manufacturing and core to LIFT's mission, so we are proud to have been awarded this project to work with them."
The UCF project is expected to also help support LIFT's ongoing hypersonics materials research work.
For more information contact:
University of Central Florida
4000 Central Florida Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32816
407-823-2000
www.ucf.edu
LIFT
1400 Rosa Parks Blvd.
Detroit, MI 48216
313-309-9003
www.lift.technology