Scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) in Australia have created a new titanium alloy using 3D printing. It is stronger, more ductile and almost one-third cheaper than standard materials. This discovery makes titanium more accessible for aviation, medicine and other industries looking to increase reliability and reduce costs.
It is commonly known that modern additive technologies primarily use the Ti-6Al-4V alloy. This alloy is expensive to produce due to its vanadium content; when printed, it often forms a so-called columnar microstructure consisting of elongated crystals that grow along the printing direction. The structure makes this material non-uniform: it is stronger in one direction than the other, causing components to lose reliability.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, a team of RMIT researchers has replaced expensive vanadium with more affordable elements and proposed a method for predicting the grain structure in 3D printing. This approach has reduced the cost of the alloy by almost 30%, helping achieve a uniform microstructure.
This has resulted in a metal with higher strength and durability.
Tests have confirmed that the new alloy outperforms Ti-6Al-4V in terms of characteristics, while remaining significantly cheaper. Ryan Brooke, the lead author of the study, said: “3D printing allows faster, less wasteful and more tailorable production, yet we’re still relying on legacy alloys like Ti-6Al-4V that doesn’t allow full capitalisation of this potential. It’s like we’ve created an aeroplane and are still just driving it around the streets.”
Mr. Brooke believes that the new alloy is the leap forward that industry and medicine have been waiting for. “We have been able to not only produce titanium alloys with a uniform grain structure, but with reduced costs, while also making it stronger and more ductile,” he noted.
Professor Mark Easton, who co-authored the study, said that its successful implementation will require combined efforts from scientists, manufacturers and companies representing related industries. “We are very excited about the prospects of this new alloy, but it requires a team from across the supply chain to make it successful. So, we are looking for partners to provide guidance for the next stages of development,” he added.
The authors have already filed a provisional patent for their innovative solution.
