ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | OCTOBER 2023 26 the end than something that we could have tried more easily. And going back to your combustion designers. This alloy solved their problem. Smith: Yes. We just finished our final hot fire testing with that injector combustor dome design. We tested cobalt chrome again in the conditions that were causing cracking. Sure enough, that combustor dome massively cracked and failed. And then we tested GRX-810 on the same conditions. Afterward, we conducted full CT scans of the parts. We were able to show that it had absolutely no cracking in the component. Now that you see the magic of combining computer modeling with 3D printing, is NASA going to replicate this kind of development process in other ways? Kantzos: We’ve already been approached by a few people who have asked us to make an alloy that focuses on this or that property. We’ve been able to go back to that original process and run through the steps again and try and come up with alloys tailored to specific applications, for example. That’s something that we’re trying and keeping it in our toolbox. Stay tuned. The main application of GRX-810 is in aerospace. Do you foresee its application in other industries? Smith: GRX-810 has become a proof of concept of the idea of producing oxide dispersion-strengthened (ODS) alloys. One of the reasons GRX-810 has such great properties is that we take the base composition of the metal powder and we coat it with nanoscale yttria nanoparticles. Then, when we 3D print it, those nanoparticles get dispersed into the component randomly and evenly. And that’s a big reason why we see a big bump up in high temper- ature strength creep and oxidation. The process that we’re using to coat this metal feedstock and print can really be applied to a multitude of other alloy systems. This could work with ODS steel alloys for fusion or energy applications, or strengthen refractory alloys by producing a dispersion strengthened refractory alloy. The process has opened a potential alloy design space that could help solve many technical challenges in different areas like energy. We’re busy coating different metal powders now to see what works and what doesn’t, and we’ll go from there. Sustainability is a significant concern in modern materials science. How does your alloy address environmental considerations such as resource availability or recyclability? Smith: One nice thing about additive manufacturing (AM) is that when you put the powder through the machine and print your part, at least with this composition, you can take all of the metal powder and recycle it, and start the printing process again. We end up producing a lot less waste than your more conventional processes where you’re subtracting, or machining 80% of the part to get the metal component. And again, my hope is that AM and ODS alloys can solve some of the technical challenges that we’re trying to address these days in terms of producing more fuel-efficient jet engines or realizing fusion energy. We’re environmentally focused on both fronts—in helping to promote these new technologies, but also by producing less waste from the technical components as well. Are there any challenges to the ongoing production of this alloy and to scaling up? Smith: Making the base powder feedstock is straightforward and we can get good base powder feedstocks produced commercially. But the coating process itself is something that is still being done in our lab. We’re in discussions to commercialize and scale up. What does the commercialization process involve? Smith: The commercialization process itself is handled through NASA’s Technology Transfer Office. But if licensing is put together, they come to us as the inventors named on the patent, and we share everything we’ve learned and try to push this technology forward. 3D printing operator at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Powder feedstock for additive manufacturing. NASA’s logo being 3D printed.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTYyMzk3NQ==