Materials Science in 3D Printing

Yinmin Morris Wang, Ph.D.
Materials Science Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The progress of materials science is often propelled by the development and breakthrough of synthetic techniques. The recently emerged 3D printing technologies (or additive manufacturing (AM)) offer unique opportunities to make materials and structures in a single print. Although AM focuses more frequently on an engineering scheme, it offers unique opportunities to tailor materials properties with highly nonequilibrium microstructures and/or through ingenious structural designs, leading to extraordinary materials properties that can extend far beyond those achievable via conventional processing methods. This helps to open a new field of 3D printing materials science. Using laser powder-bed-fusion (L-PBF) as an example (a common AM approach for metals and alloys), here we will show a few examples of common engineering materials (stainless steels and titanium alloys) that can be manufactured by 3D printing technologies. The structure-property relationship studies reveal that numerous microstructural features in these materials could influence the strength and ductility, making it difficult to scale the materials behavior. While we are excited about the unique properties that can be achieved in these materials, some serious deficiencies are noteworthy. We will discuss immediate scientific challenges and future opportunities.

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. The speaker would like to thank many colleagues, postdoctoral staff members, and graduate students who have contributed to this work.

About the Speaker

Dr. Y. Morris Wang obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science and two master degrees, all from the Johns Hopkins University in 2003. He is a Dupty Group Leader for the Nanoscale Integration Science Group of the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laborary. Dr. Wang is a Fellow of American Physical Society (2014) and a winner of Nano50 Innovator Award (2008). He has published ~140 aritcles and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Report since 2017. Since 2004, he has mentored over 20 graduate students and postdoc staff members. His group’s recent research interest includes additive manufacturing, mechanical behavior of nanostructured metals, lithium ion batteries, and fusion materials and targets.