According to foreign media New Atlas, the technology of 3D printing titanium alloy objects does bring some interesting possibilities. However, the finished product is not always so strong. Now a new study shows that adding copper to these alloys may have very different effects.

In general, when 3D printing an object with a titanium alloy, a laser is used to selectively melt a powder composed of titanium particles and other chemical elements. In this way, as each layer of melted powder cools to a solid, items will accumulate one layer at a time.

　　However, according to scientists at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia, when the materials cool and combine, they form problematic cylindrical crystals in the material. These ultimately make the final product easier to crack and deform. Unfortunately, unlike some other metals, there are no commercially available grain refinement compounds that can be used with titanium alloys to solve this problem.

RMIT researchers collaborated with scientists from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the University of Queensland and the Ohio State University to study copper. More specifically, they conducted experiments on 3D printed objects in titanium alloy powder mixed with copper powder. The resulting solid material shows great hope.

Professor Mark Easton of RMIT said: "It is particularly noteworthy that its fully equiaxed grain structure: this means that the grains grow equally in all directions to form a strong bond, rather than in a cylinder, which leads to easy Weak points of fracture. Alloys with this microstructure can withstand greater forces and the possibility of defects such as cracks or deformations during the manufacturing process will be greatly reduced.

　　The researchers hope that after the technology is further developed, this titanium-copper alloy can find applications in the fields of medicine, defense and aerospace.

The paper about this research was recently published in the journal Nature.