Academician Wu Xinhua of the Australian Academy of Engineering officially announced at the International Aeronautical Materials Conference held in Reno, the United States that after nearly two years of research, Academician Wu led the Monash University research team to successfully develop a high-strength and high-toughness aluminum alloy for additive manufacturing. Materials, adding a star member to 3D printing aluminum alloy materials. Al250C is a material specially designed by the research team for 3D printing, and it has reached the stage of mass production and commercial use. The launch of Al250C powder products immediately received high praise and attention from many aerospace giants including General Motors, Boeing, Raytheon, Safran and others. The use of this material to make aerospace aluminum alloy 3D printed structural parts is more promising to replace part of the current aerospace titanium alloy components, and achieve the purpose of reducing weight and saving costs in the aerospace field.
 
According to experts, in the field of aerospace, 3D printing technology can solve the extremely complex processing and manufacturing problems of precision components, in the complicated structure problems such as conformal internal flow channel, complex thin wall, hollow weight reduction, complex internal cavity, and multi-component integration. It has inherent advantages and is an important area for the rapid development of 3D printing technology. However, in the application of 3D printing aluminum alloy, most of the grades are not suitable for 3D printing due to the forming characteristics of traditional aluminum alloys. There are only a few cast aluminum alloys suitable for 3D printing. Due to their own material performance limitations, they cannot be suitable for large-scale applications in high-end aerospace fields. It is difficult to meet the requirements of high-strength and high-temperature use, which greatly limits the use of 3D printing in aerospace Application requirements for weight reduction.
 

The reporter learned that the strength of the Al250C material has reached the highest level among aluminum alloy materials currently available for 3D printing. The yield strength can reach 580MPa, the tensile strength is above 590MPa, and the elongation rate can reach 11%. The prepared component has passed the high temperature of 2500C for continuous 5000 The hourly stability test is equivalent to the requirement of 25 years of regular engine service. The yield strength of the existing aluminum alloys AlMg7Si and AlMg10Si is 260 MPa, the elongation after printing is 4-6%, and the maximum operating temperature is less than 100℃. Both in terms of performance and operating temperature, they cannot meet the requirements of aerospace aluminum alloy products. Stringent requirements, and the strength of Al250C is close to twice the strength of commonly used AlSi10Mg aluminum alloy materials. It is particularly pointed out that the material exhibits a very excellent high-temperature service life. Compared with the current Scalmalloy aluminum alloy suitable for metal 3D printing, its service life at 250°C is only 100 hours, while the use of Al250C at the same temperature The service life exceeds 5000 hours, which greatly improves the service life.
 
It is reported that the current aeronautical heat dissipation structure developed using this high-strength aluminum alloy material successfully replaced the traditional medium temperature component made of titanium alloy, greatly reducing the design weight of the structure, and successfully helping a certain type of French engine to achieve slimming.

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