Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.
On January 9th 2023, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) of Moscow, Russia spoke of a group of its researchers experimenting with 3D printing a bronze-steel alloy previously unknown to materials science. Skoltech claimed that the study reported the first ever synthesis of a bronze-steel alloy via direct laser deposition, a 3D printing technique where a laser melts and fuses powdered materials at each layer of the 3D printing process. The team’s research was published in the journal Materials & Design.
The Skoltech team combined bronze and steel in 2 different ways, obtaining quasi-homogeneous and sandwich structured alloys. In the quasi-homogeneous structure, the 2 materials were mostly evenly mixed throughout the sample; the sandwich structure consisted of alternating 0.25mm-thick layers of bronze and steel. The team used 1 type of steel but varied its content in the alloy between 25% and 50%; they also experimented with 3 different common varieties of bronze. They found that the 2 materials fused well, without defects forming.
Skoltech argued that blending the properties of bronze and steel meant that the team’s alloy could be used to manufacture combustion chambers for aircraft and rocket engines, which would benefit from steel’s ability to withstand extreme temperatures and bronze’s ability to conduct heat away from the chamber, preventing the engine from overheating. For further work, study lead author and PhD student Konstantin Makarenko hopes to make a bronze-steel combustion chamber, while also testing other possible objects and metal combinations, including turbine blades with cooling channels made of bronze.
3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.
Disclaimer: Featured image of “Bethlehem Steel Pennellb” is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The author of the work of art itself died in 1926, ergo it is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 95 years or fewer.
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