Building Stronger Materials

Inventing stronger and more durable materials is a constant process which engages the scientific community. There is always a need for finding light weight material that can resist fatigue in both industrial and commercial operations. Space age travel is also a major consumer of new materials and it is no surprise that NASA funds a lot of research related to the discovery of new materials.

At the Missouri University of Science and Technology, the process of building new materials begins with a fabrication method known as additive manufacturing. Dr. Frank Liou and his team have been working on this process for more than 15 years. In it they use lasers to melt small particles of powdered materials as they exit a nozzle to create three-dimensional shapes.

Liou has found that steel manufactured using the additive process is 10 times stronger than steel that has been manufactured in machines. He has now begun work on what he called “hybrid manufacturing” which combines additive manufacturing with conventional manufacturing methods.

Using hybrid manufacturing the researchers are hoping to build a new material using two different metals such as steel and copper. The resulting material may be light and strong and have a number of applications in the aircraft and space industry. It would be worth watching out for what this science project delivers next.