- Tungsten carbide can now be printed without melting or ruining its strength
- A laser and heated wire soften the metal just enough to bond the layers
- Avoiding full melting reduces defects that previously blocked metal additive manufacturing
Most people are familiar with 3D printers that make plastic parts, toys, or simple tools, but printing metal is much more difficult.
The reason is that metals require extremely high heat and react poorly when heated and cooled too quickly.
However, in a major breakthrough, scientists at Hiroshima University have shown that tungsten-cobalt carbide can now be 3D printed using a different method.
Instead of completely melting the metal, the process heats it just enough to soften it. This allows the material to bond layer by layer without losing its internal structure.
The method uses a laser and heated wire to soften a solid carbide rod during printing.
A thin layer of nickel alloy is also placed between the printed layers to help them stick together more reliably.
Since the metal is not completely melted, the printed result avoids many of the defects seen in previous attempts.
The researchers report that the final printed material achieves a hardness greater than 1,400 HV, without introducing defects or decay.
This level of hardness is only slightly lower than materials like sapphire and diamond, which is unusual for 3D printed metal parts.
Tungsten carbide is widely used in cutting and construction tools, and it is one of the hardest engineering materials used today.
These tools are typically made by shaping solid blocks of material, which creates a large amount of waste.
Being able to 3D print industrial-grade carbides without defects could reduce material waste and enable parts to be manufactured closer to their final shape.
The current process still has cracking problems in some cases and complex shapes are not yet easy to produce.
“The approach of forming metallic materials by softening them rather than completely melting them is new,” said Keita Marumoto, an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering at Hiroshima University.
“It has the potential to be applied not only to cemented carbides, which were the subject of this study, but also to other materials.”
Despite the progress made, this work does not mean that tungsten parts will soon be printed in everyday environments.
Metal printing remains slower, more expensive and more difficult to control than plastic printing.
The researchers say further process improvements are needed to reduce cracking and enable more complex designs.
The idea of softening rather than melting metals seems promising, but its real value will depend on its ability to scale, repeat reliably, and operate outside of test environments.
Via Tom’s material
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