标题: China-U.S. Team 3D Prints Meter-Scale Titanium Single Crystal by Arc Additive Manufacturing; Results Published in Nature [打印本页] 作者: admin 时间: 2026-11-12 10:33 标题: China-U.S. Team 3D Prints Meter-Scale Titanium Single Crystal by Arc Additive Manufacturing; Results Published in Nature On November 7, 2026, Nanjixiong learned that a paper published in Nature reports that a team from Beijing Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, used deep-sub-Pulsed Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (DSP-WAAM) to 3D print a titanium-alloy single-crystal rod one meter tall.
The material was Ti-6Al-4V. Samples included a rod about 1 cm in diameter and 1 m tall, as well as 6 mm and 20 mm specimens. The 20 mm cross-section was divided into nine regions for crystallographic orientation mapping, confirming a continuous single crystal. The team also printed an unsupported zigzag lattice whose diagonal struts were each single crystals. Tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, and molybdenum-niobium alloys were also made into single crystals using the same process; the orientation deviation for niobium was less than 2 degrees.
The process pulses arc current between a 200 A peak and a 20 A base level, forming a wide, shallow melt pool and a convex solidification interface. A remelting mechanism of about 0.15 mm per layer causes regions with misaligned orientations to remelt, allowing the single crystal to self-correct as it grows layer by layer. In a 700°C creep test, the titanium single crystal's creep resistance was about an order of magnitude higher than predicted by the grain-size model. The paper says the approach may be used for reactor components, laser mirrors, and thermal-insulation lattices for extreme temperatures.
Nanjixiong's view Single-crystal superalloys are traditionally made in directional-solidification furnaces, which constrain size and geometry. Arc AM produced a meter-scale single crystal without relying on a seed crystal, making it a route to watch for hot-section components in aero engines.
AI-translated from an article by Kuaixiong on Nanjixiong, originally published on 2026-11-07. Text and images retain the original source attribution. Read the original Chinese article
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