Lightweight, High Toughness Metallic Micro Lattice Metamaterials

High-entropy alloy (HEA) lattices have superior and tunable mechanical and physical properties such as high strength and ductility, the damage tolerance, and high corrosion resistance. Its excellent properties can be attributed to the atomic scale distorted lattice structure introduced by mixing of large quantity of elements of different sized elements in a concentrated solution. The lattice distortion will raise the energy barrier against dislocation movement and lead to the strengthening of HEAs. These unique properties are highly desired for industrial applications such as aerospace, automotive, mechanic, and construction. The technology on offer is a method to design and produce disordered/distortion single crystalline lattice structures (simple cubic, FCC, BCC etc) based on HEAs’ atomic structure. A computer-aided design (CAD) software is first utilized to design the lattice and fabrication of final structure is completed through 3D-printing. Fabrication of the structure through a particular 3D-printing technique allows for easy design and optimization of the final product’s lattice structure to achieve the desired mechanical and functional properties.

Through a CAD software, each unit cell is designed with slight differences and arranged randomly or pseudo randomly to form high-entropy lattice structures. Following optimization, the fabrication of different scale HEA lattice structures is completed with stereolithographic 3D-printing machines. Further work to optimize the fabricated structures by simulating the deformation process of the fabricated structures through digital image correlation (DIC) and finite-element modelling (FEM) and incorporate these processes in-situ into the entire system are currently underway. Fabricated 3D-printed HEA lattice structures have the following attributes: Pseudo-random lattice structure Superior high strength and ductility High elastic property and damage tolerance Improved energy absorption Strong corrosion resistance High precision and large breadth

Potential applications of the HEAs produced include (but are not limited to): HEA coated metal or glass composites Building or reinforcement materials in construction Functional materials for electronic devices or energy storage Bio-scaffolds for cell culturing Aerospace parts Automotive components The company is willing to explore collaborations with industry partners that have need for high precision, superior mechanical properties components.

Cost savings of computational cost Fabricated components of high precision and large breadth Enhanced mechanical properties and increased energy absorption of components produced Suitable for applications that require superior mechanical properties