Chinese Researchers Have Developed Highly Fatigue-resistant 3D Printed Titanium Alloy

The reporter learned from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers from the institute have recently prepared 3D printed titanium alloy materials with high fatigue resistance. This material is expected to play a role in the aerospace field in the future. The results were published in the international academic journal "Nature" on February 29, Beijing time.

It is understood that under ideal conditions, titanium alloys directly prepared by 3D printing technology should have natural ultra-high fatigue resistance. However, defects such as pores generated during the printing process will significantly reduce the fatigue resistance of titanium alloys. In high-temperature experiments on a certain titanium alloy material, scientific researchers discovered that there is a valuable heat treatment process window that can suppress the appearance of pores. On this basis, they invented a new process for step-by-step control of defects and structures, and finally prepared almost Porous titanium alloy material. This material can increase the tensile-tensile fatigue strength of titanium alloy from the original 475 MPa to 978 MPa in cyclic tests.

According to Zhang Zhefeng, a researcher at the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3D printing technology is currently widely used in aerospace applications. The new technology they developed can increase the fatigue life by ten to hundreds of times under the same load. For the same life expectancy, the applied load will be ten to fifteen percent higher.

(CCTV reporter Shuai Junquan and Chu Erjia)