STAM-Science and Technology in Advanced Manufacturing

The Re-Make project, coordinated by Politecnico di Milano, aims to implement, monitor, and characterize a bespoke sustainable high-performance repair and Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology based on solid state deposition. The project seeks to achieve functional products through a multi-faceted approach that combines multi-scale computational modelling with advanced experimental, analytical techniques, and data-driven approaches. Extensive background research has led to the definition 11 Doctoral candidates that will accomplish Re-Make’s plan through a list of realistically measurable and verifiable Research and Training Objectives.

Here at Trinity College, we developed the DC2 program, for the development of a new experimental set-up for impact high-speed visualizations with a high-speed camera. The findings of DC2 will provide with a deeper understanding of the impact process and the key particle/substrate interactions for a wide range of materials, and will allow to resolve in real-time the plastic and elastic deformation process during Cold Spray (CS).

Aerosol jet printing is a promising additive manufacturing technique for flexible electronics. In the wet aerosol method, a metal nanoparticle ink is aerosolised and transported to the print head. Dry aerosol jet printing, where a metal aerosol is prepared in the printing device, may offer some advantages by avoiding the need to prepare and store the nanoparticle ink, and improving the surface purity of the printed nanoparticles. Here we present description of a novel dry aerosol jet printing method, which is based upon pulsed laser ablation of a metal target in an inert gas at atmospheric pressure. The ablation vapor is condensed near the target to form a mist of nanoparticles, and thence larger nanoparticle agglomerates. The dry aerosol is transported to a print head, and aerodynamically focused into a narrow jet directed on to a moving substrate to form a fine line of weakly-bound silver nanoparticle agglomerates.

Thermal management is in the strong need for new material’s innovation. Stunningly, large data centres spend up to 40% of the total energy consumption to run the cooling system. Other examples are in the cooling of electronics and in the thermal control of electric vehicles batteries.

Here, the development of innovative solutions is hindered by heat removal and transport unsolved problems; the design aspect of thermal control devices has achieved so much but is already under pressure.

In ThermoDust we will achieve a real breakthrough in investigating new flexible materials, with the final aim of engineering a radically new material (ThermoDust) with outstanding heat transfer performance and suitable for Additive Manufacturing.

We are confident to be able to achieve the overall objectives through a sophisticated multi-disciplinary methodology that will rely upon scientific investigations, and the exploitation of discoveries to establish Europe as a leader in heat management, paving the way for innumerable new innovative products and markets in ICT, aerospace, electric vehicles and related areas.

High Entropy Alloys (HEAs), comprising of at least five principal metal elements in equal or near equimolar concentrations emerged as a new class of high performance materials due to their unique and excellent mechanical properties such as high strength, fracture toughness, fatigue/corrosion resistance. These alloys hold great potential, and suitability under critical conditions in a variety of industrial applications such as in aerospace, energy and medical devices.

This project explores a novel approach to manufacture HEAs thru additive manufacturing (AM) techniques. The fabrication of materials layer-upon-layer in Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers new ways of making lightweight components with optimized complex structures. However, major challenges remain for the successful realization of AM especially in elucidating the relationship between printability, composition and microstructure of HEAs.

In this project, this relationship will be studied for both Powder Bed Fusion and Solid-State Additive Manufacturing by examining key thermodynamic properties, material characterization and the fabrication process. Moreover, rapid solidification behaviour from these additive manufacturing processes will be studied under microgravity conditions which may influence the formation of solid solutions and may give rise to novel, interesting properties. A comprehensive characterisation of the microstructure and deformation behaviour is carried out using a range of advanced characterisation methods such as, but not limited to, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD).

A systematic research of cold spray manufactured novel functional and biocompatible depositions

Description

Among metallic biomaterials, tantalum is gaining more attention as a new biomaterial. Tantalum has been shown to be corrosion resistant and bioactive in vivo. What’s more, bacterial infection after prostheses implant surgery always lead to failure and suffering of patients. The combination of Ta with other materials can create novel functional coatings with excellent bioactive and antibacterial performance. Cold spray (CS) uses high-temperature compressed gas as propulsive media to accelerate the feedstock particles and a large part of energy needed for formation is the particle kinetic energy. Deposition is achieved through local metallurgical bonding and mechanical interlocking which are caused by localized plastic deformation at the inter-particle and particle-substrate interfaces. cold spray has been developed as an emerging technology for additive manufacture. In addition, the rough surface and inherent defects like porosity can improve the cell attachment and promote bone ingrowth. Considering the features of CS technology, CS and CSAM are promising manufacturing technologies to produce bioactive and antibacterial coatings and components.