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Additive Manufacturing

Major research success for the LKR Ranshofen

Success for researchers at LKR Ranshofen: For the first time, high-strength Al alloys of the 7xxx class processed by means of wire-based additive manufacturing

Success for researchers at LKR Ranshofen: For the first time, high-strength Al alloys of the 7xxx class processed by means of wire-based additive manufacturing

Great success for the WAM team around Stephan Ucsnik and Thomas Klein at the LKR Leichtmetallkompetenzzentrum Ranshofen: In the course of their research work, the experts succeeded in processing an aluminium alloy (7075), which was actually not considered fusion-weldable and thus not WAM-processable, successfully using wire-based 3D printing and also achieving excellent mechanical properties.

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New fields of application for WAM technology

Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys are among the highest performing aluminium alloys, but they are extremely difficult to process because they are prone to hot cracking during solidification. However, the LKR team has been able to overcome this by using high-quality pre-material developed in-house and comprehensive process know-how. This opens up completely new fields of application for WAM technology. Thomas Klein, Senior Scientist at LKR, explains: "For the first time, we have succeeded in processing high-strength aluminium alloys of the 7xxx class using wire-based additive manufacturing. In the future, this will enable, for example, to manufacture highly stressed structural components for various applications in a resource-saving and energy-efficient way."

Research success in a team

Stephan Ucsnik, Thematic Coordinator for wire-based additive manufacturing, adds: "The results achieved by Thomas Klein and the colleagues prove that the aluminium alloys developed at the LKR have the mechanical potential for use in industry - not only in aviation and aerospace, but also in ground-based sustainable mobility systems, the energy sector or prototyping."

The results were published in the paper "Wire-arc additive manufacturing of Al-Zn5.5-Mg-Cu (ML7075): Shifting paradigms of additive manufacture-ability" (authors: Thomas Klein, Leonhard Reiter and Martin Schnall) in the journal "Materials Letters" and on sciencedirect.com.

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