A huge impact has been made in optimizing printing equipment, including highly reliable lasers, inexpensive high-performance computing hardware, and software. Currently, metal 3D printing is attracting attention due to its unique advantages in producing metal materials compared to other manufacturing technologies.
Take titanium alloys as an example. Titanium and titanium alloys have attracted a lot of attention in additive manufacturing technology as titanium combines a wide range of industrial applications for high-performance parts with high machining costs, hard molding, and long lead times for conventional machining. Among titanium alloys, Ti6Al4V is the most widely used material for many engineering parts and biomedical implants. The material is highly resistant to corrosion and has high ductility. These features make it ideal for implementation in multiple industries. 3D printing titanium has many benefits.
For aerospace applications, the use of titanium and 3D printing components often helps reduce purchase rates. A term derived from the aerospace industry that refers to the correlation between the weight of the material originally purchased and the weight of the finished product.
For example, in traditional manufacturing, the buy/sell ratio for titanium aircraft parts can range from 12:1 to 25:1. This means you need 12-25kg of raw material to produce a 1kg part. In this case, up to 90% of the material can be processed.
Metal 3D printing can reduce the titanium ratio from 3:1 to 12:1. This is because metal 3D printers typically use only the amount of material needed to make the part, and the support structure generates little waste. For expensive materials such as titanium, it is more important to reduce procurement costs than to save costs.
Additive manufacturing can also enhance the lightweight properties of titanium due to the optimization of the topology. Engineers use topology optimization software to set certain requirements, such as loads and stiffness constraints, and then let software tools optimize the initial design to meet those requirements.
With this optimization, all unnecessary material can be removed from the design, creating a lightweight yet strong component. Topology-optimized designs can often only be manufactured with the help of additive manufacturing techniques.
The aerospace industry especially cherishes this advantage, as lightweight 3D printing titanium parts reduce weight and improve aircraft performance. Despite the many advantages of titanium 3D printing, there are still some challenges to consider.
1. The first is the need to develop standards for the use of titanium with additive technology. Some companies have already taken steps in this direction.
2. The second challenge is the high cost of titanium powder. For example, titanium powder optimized for 3D printing costs between $300 and $600. Titanium 3D printing has become a valuable technology in aerospace, medicine, and automotive.
The main reason is the superior properties of titanium combined with the ability to reduce waste in
3D printing and creating complex and lightweight designs.
In the future, as titanium costs fall and more applications are discovered, titanium 3D printing will be an ideal manufacturing alternative for a wide range of industries.
JR can provide titanium alloy 3D printing parts. If you want to know the specific price, you can contact us at any time.
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