3D printing for Damascus steel

[patrickguignot]

Researchers from the "Max Planck Institute for Iron Research" published a paper in the journal Nature about the possibility to 3D print Damascus steel.

Link to the abstract : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2409-3

Apparently they were able to deposit alternating layers of soft and hard alloy (Fe19Ni5Ti) in order to have a 3D printed Damascus steel at the end of the process.

They said : "Our material has a tensile strength of 1,300 megapascals and 10 per cent elongation, showing superior mechanical properties to those of ancient Damascus steel"

There is an interesting article from arstechnica with pictures here.

I would love to have Larrin's opinion about this. Is additive manufacturing a good solution to obtain new and better steels for knives ? Can it be commercially competitive in the future ?

 

[Larrin]

The real promoted benefit to their process is adjusting the laser parameters to get different properties, so that a single material can be used but adjusting strength based on needs, such as having low strength and high ductility/toughness in the bulk and high surface hardness for abrasion resistance, etc. This was achieved because of the specific strengthening mechanism used in their material. The pattern-welded Damascus element is mostly marketing for this paper. Regardless, alternating soft and hard layers is usually not desired in modern Damascus steels so that is not really a benefit. I wouldn’t think that laser additive manufacturing would be very cost effective either, especially after all of the necessary time delays are added in for the adjusted properties.

 

[Planterz]

Researchers from the "Max Planck Institute for Iron Research" published a paper in the journal Nature about the possibility to 3D print Damascus steel.

All I can say is that I have constant thoughts about Max Planck.