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BEAMIT Develops 3D Printing Process for Strong, Lightweight Titanium Alloy Ti6242 https://ift.tt/2Q26PVw Headquartered in Italy, with nearly 50 dedicated additive manufacturing systems distributed across five facilities in the Parma province of the Emilia-Romagna region, the BEAMIT Group is said to be Europe’s largest 3D printing hub, and has specialized in metal AM powders and metal 3D printed components for demanding, high-tech industries like aerospace, automotive, energy, industrial engineering, and racing for over two decades. Now, the company announced that it has come up with an additive manufacturing process for Ti6242, a titanium alloy that’s prized by the motorsports industry for its specific resistance to high temperatures and tensile strength up to 1000 MPa. BEAMIT says that the results of its analysis and research reveal that this particular alloy delivers better results in aeronautical and motorsports applications when it’s 3D printed, as opposed to processed with a more traditional technology, like forging.
According to BEAMIT, the first titanium alloy materials were created near the end of World War II as replacements for nickel superalloys in supersonic aircraft engines, and were also used for other high-temperature applications. The composition of 3D printed Ti6242 makes it a good choice for aeronautical components. Additionally, BEAMIT says that nearly all titanium alloys for high-temperature applications were made with conventional techniques prior to 2019, which it says is the year that the motorsport industry started investigating the use of 3D printed titanium alloys. There are some other materials used for automotive and motorsport applications that are capable of making components with levels of tensile strength not dissimilar to what Ti6242 can offer, but they’re a lot heavier. The benefit of this 3D printed alloy is that the parts are reduced in weight without being reduced in strength. The company decided to conduct a study to find which titanium alloys could be created using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) 3D printing, in order to optimize the mechanical properties of the best material at temperature. Their results found that 3D printed Ti6242 had the best performance.
The BEAMIT researchers discovered that the “highly innovative and unprecedented” 3D printed Ti6242, which can be fabricated into complex shapes, has a density of 4.5 g/cm3, is able to withstand temperatures up to 500°C, and features high tensile strength, in addition to “extreme lightness.” These combined properties give the alloy a high specific resistance, or strength-to-weight ratio, which makes it an ideal option for applications needing strong components that are lighter than steel and nickel superalloys.
Ultimately, the BEAMIT researchers said they 3D printed a Ti6242 component that performed much better than components made with conventional manufacturing methods.
(Source/Images: BEAMIT Group) Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com April 8, 2021 at 07:36AM
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