Metal Additive Manufacturing is a rapidly expanding research field. Scopus records indicate that in 2010, 96 papers were published in this area, while in 2017, 860 papers were published – a huge growth in output. Research on metallic alloys like aluminium and titanium constitute the bulk of the research, but research on new materials is slowly emerging. There’s still a lot that remains to be studied to understand and improve the performance of manufactured components.
Materials Characterization has drawn together a selection of papers to address this growing topical area, presenting the work of leading teams in the field worldwide.
Many different materials can be processed using AM technologies. In the special issue the following AM metals and alloys are discussed: aluminium alloys, titanium alloys, iron based alloys, Cu alloy, Inconel, NiTi and TiAl based composites, but also more complex engineered materials.
The papers mainly discuss microstructural characterization and mechanical properties. However results on magnetic, thermal and electrical properties as well as bio-compatibility characterization of these new materials is covered.
The work in this special issue should be of great interest to both research and industry – the papers in the issue provide an in depth overview of the work that’s being done in this area. Readers are invited to freely access the special issue here.