A research team consisting of Dr. Sangwoo Song, Dr. Chankyu Kim, and Dr. Kangmyung Seo from the Department of Joining Technology at the Korea Institute of Materials Science has created a foundational technology that controls the volume of molten steel in 3D printing metal with welding techniques.
They achieved this through collaborative research with a research team led by Professor Young-tae Cho and Professor Seok Kim of the Department of Mechanical engineering at Changwon National University, and a research team led by Dr. Dae-won Cho of Busan Machinery Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials. They have developed a metal 3D printing pen technology which can print metal continuously in three dimensions with freedom.
The research team developed a metal 3D printing pen technology that allows for continuous and free metal printing. This is possible in accordance with the movement of the welding torch in 3D space. The equipment construction costs are lower than conventional metal 3D printers using lasers. Furthermore, additive manufacturing can also be performed quickly with commercially available welding materials, which makes it cheaper.
Welding techniques for metal additive manufacturing have limitations when it comes to creating complex structures. It is limited in the ability to build one layer at a given time. The reason is that subsequent layers are laminated following solidification, which prevents the molten metal’s flow down. There are two disadvantages to this: the cooling times are longer and the types of laminates that are possible are very limited. To solve these problems, the research team performed a computer analysis to calculate and precisely control the surface tension of the molten metal and the solidified volume according to convection/conduction.
A technology was also created that can be used to perform metal additive manufacturing in all positions, including vertical, inclined and overhead. The manufacturing time is reduced by continuously laminating metal in the liquid phase, before it solidifies fully. There is no separation between layers and it forms a dense microstructure of excellent mechanical properties.
With annual growth rates of 10.5% & 20%, the 3D printer market in both home and abroad stands at KRW 82.21 billion and USD 2.1. billion respectively as of 2021. This research achievement will be a boost to the manufacturing sector by proving technological superiority within the field of metal additive manufacture and the production of high-value parts and machines that use it.
Sang-woo Song is the principal researcher at KIMS and was responsible for the research. “Like existing 3D printing technology with polymers, it’s possible to easily fabricate complex structures using existing metal welding material, which suggests a new paradigm in the manufacturing industry.”
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Chan Kyu Kim et al, High‐Throughput Metal 3D Printing Pen Enabled by a Continuous Molten Droplet Transfer (Adv. Sci. 6/2023), Advanced Science (2023). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202370030
Provided by
National Research Council of Science & Technology
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New 3D printing technology to control volume of molten steel (2023, March 27).
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