Scientists from Texas A&M University and the U.S. Air Force say they’ve developed a way to 3D print the strongest kind of steel, along with many other metals.

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By using a steel powder melted into place by a laser, this process follows in the footsteps of technologies like powder welding. And by adding a mathematical model to gauge which laser settings will best reduce printing flaws, the researchers have made a process they say makes strong steel into strong 3D-printed steel items.

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The mathematical model and its results are presented as an “optimization framework” that anchors the research team’s new paper . “This framework utilizes the computationally inexpensive Eagar-Tsai model, calibrated with single track experiments, to predict the melt pool geometry,” the team writes. “Computationally inexpensive” means the mathematical model doesn’t require a […]

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