Scientists have made an advancement in 3D printing technology for a titanium alloy, doubling the material’s endurance and broadening prospects for its applications in the aerospace sector.The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) hailed the achievement – detailed in a study published by the journal Nature on Wednesday – as a “significant breakthrough” in materials science.

The research was a collaboration between Zhang Zhenjun and Zhang Zhefeng, from the CAS Institute of Metal Research’s Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, and Robert Ritchie from the University of California, Berkeley.

According to the peer-reviewed paper, the study was conceived in China and the sample material was also produced there. Ritchie took part in the reviewing process for the manuscript.While 3D printing – also known as additive manufacturing (AM) – has revolutionised manufacturing, the process has been of limited use for making components that require a high level of fatigue tolerance.

So far, the material has only been produced at a sample scale, in a dumbbell shape with the thinnest section measuring 3mm (about 0.118 in), which is too small for most real-life applications.While the technology is still in the experimental phase, it already has great application prospects, according to Zhang Zhenjun.

“Thicker sections would face heat transfer limitations during processing. Nonetheless, this advancement is sufficient for the fabrication of many thinner, complex devices,” he said.

According to the CAS website, many aviation parts – including Nasa’s rocket nozzles, the support frames of China’s J-20 fighter jet, and the fuel nozzles of the Chinese C919 aircraft – have been made using 3D printing technology.

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