Manufacturing

Hopper for Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing​​​

 Principal Investigator   : ​MAE, Prof Chua Chee Kai ​
 
​Key Features ​and Innovation 
  • Multi-material hopper enables powder bed fusion technology to fabricate multi materials in 2 axes.
  • It is able to ​combine materials with different materials which are conventionally difficult to be welded together, e.g. copper and stainless steel.
 Potential Application 
  •  Applicable to industries that require multi-material components e.g. heat transfer components, corrosion prevention parts, implants, electricity, gas and air-conditioning supply and transportation and storage sectors 

  Figure 1. Prototype of Hopper for powder bed fusion

Figure 2. Samples of multi materials parts produced by SLM

 

Method of Forming Titanium-tantalum Alloys

 
Principal Investigator  : ​​MAE, Asst Prof Yeong Wai Yee​

 
​Key Features and Innovation 
  • Homogeneous titanium-tantalum alloy is obtained using selective laser melting (SLM) for the first time. 
  • The resulting titanium-tantalum alloy has comparable mechanical strength to Ti6Al4V, and is more suitable for biomedical applications due to its lower Young’s modulus.
  • In vitro testing has also confirmed titanium-tantalum’s biocompatibility to be comparable to Ti6Al4V and pure titanium.
  • Functional parts, with complex geometries, can be produced using the alloys in a single step, simultaneously with the alloying process.
 
Relevance to which Industry 
  • Manufacturing
  • Health and Social Services
  • Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities 
  • Biomedical (devices)
  • Materials

Figure 1. Implants fabricated using SLM

 

Figure 2. Complex lattice structures fabricated using SLM
 

Self-cleaning and Anti-icing Coatings

 
​​Principal Investigator : ​​MSE, Prof Chen Zhong

 
​Key Features and Innovation 
  • Mechanically durable, UV-resistant, and can be made transparent when necessary. 
 
Potential Application
  • ​Solar panel, wind turbine, power transmission facilities, sports equipment, windshield of automobiles, and building windows, etc​ 
 Relevance to which Industry 
  • Manufacturing
  • Energy
  • Precision Engineering and etc.

Figure 1. Photographic images showing (a) pristine coatings, (b) coatings after dirt spray, and (c) coatings after water spray for cleaning. In each image from left to right: bare glass (no coating), coating No.1, coating No. 2, and coating No. 3.
 
 Figure 2. Ice adhesion strength of coatings (a) without icephobic treatment (b) with icephobic treatment. The optimized coating has ice adhesion strength ~70 kPa. As a reference, ice adhesion strength on bare glass is ~800 kPa.