Metal Alloys by Design: The Future of Materials for Additive Manufacturing

Dear Colleagues,

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) has paved the way for the design and production of complex and innovate components, due in large part to associated developments in materials science. The metal AM processes have leveraged the advancements in integrated computational materials engineering to rapidly develop new materials specifically designed to enhance the stability and repeatability of the process. Typical metallic alloys used today for AM include steel and iron-based alloys, titanium-based alloys, nickel-based alloys, aluminum alloys, cobalt-based alloys as well as copper-based alloys. At the same time, the continued emergence of AM superalloys, high-entropy alloys as well as metallic glasses (metal–matrix composites) has opened up new fields of investigations into how these advanced materials can be integrated into component designs that can be successfully produced. 

The boundaries of metal AM alloy development continue to be pushed as components exhibit increased design complexity and are deployed for critical applications. Specifically, the increasing focus on multimaterial components is posing a unique challenge for metal AM alloy development. There a need not only for greater research on the evolution of a chosen alloy during the metal AM process but also for greater insights into how the different alloys will interact within a multi-material component at all stages, i.e., during the AM process, the subsequent post-processes as well as underperformance/loading environments. Clearly there is a growing need to establish the design–process–microstructure–properties link for new alloys and alloy combinations that can then be used in additive manufacturing design.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in the fields of metal additive manufacturing processes and multimaterial AM components, with an added focus on new alloy design as well as its synergy with additive manufacturing design. Both computational and experimental studies are welcome, as well as comprehensive review papers on the corresponding fields.

Dr. Sankhya Mohanty
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• metal additive manufacturing
• alloys for additive manufacturing
• multimaterial AM components
• integrated computational materials engineering
• materials-aware design for AM
• process chains for new metal AM alloys
• process simulations
• process-microstructure-properties-performance
• rapid solidification and alloy evolution