After more than 200 hours of continuous work, a super-sized titanium alloy complex part close to the limit of the forming space of the equipment was trial-formed at the Additive Manufacturing Center of Kunming University of Science and Technology on September 7. This is also the largest single titanium alloy complex part formed by laser selective melting method to date.
Laser selective melting is a method of metal 3D printing. It uses laser as a heat source and scans the paved metal powder according to the discrete shape data of the parts, so that the metal powder is melted and accumulated point by point, and the direct manufacturing of metal parts is realized. The metal parts manufactured by this method have excellent mechanical properties, high surface quality and dimensional accuracy, and are hot research topics in the field of metal 3D printing. The complex part of titanium alloy produced by Professor Li Zhenhua's research group has a size of 250 × 250 × 257 mm and the total number of parts and supports exceeds 21 kg.
According to reports, titanium alloys have excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, and are widely used in aerospace, chemical, medical and other fields. In the process of metal laser 3D printing, high residual stresses, stress deformation and cracking during the forming of complex structural parts have always been the biggest challenges for metal 3D printing. When titanium alloy laser 3D printing, these problems are even more serious. protruding. Professor Li Zhenhua and his cooperating team carried out a lot of preliminary work on powder and composition control, component structure and position optimization, support design and stress release, remote monitoring, etc., and finally determined the test plan, which accumulated for the completion of printing large and complex titanium alloy parts Valuable experience.
In recent years, the Additive Manufacturing Center of Kunming University of Science and Technology has made great progress in 3D printing research in aerospace, medical, mold and other fields. At present, more than 5,700 undergraduates enter the manufacturing center each year to study and carry out innovative activities; there are more than 50 professional and technical personnel engaged in research at the center, doctoral and graduate students.