A review on metallic micro lattice

Abstract

Metallic Micro lattice is a very new material that combines different material properties and with different geometrical orientations can achieve better stiffness, strength and good energy absorbing capacity. It is the lightest material ever made. In this paper, an overview of manufacturing, geometrical, mechanical properties and applications are presented. Metallic micro lattice can be produced using different processes and it affects their mechanical properties. An overview of different manufacturing processes is presented in this paper. Further, a study on geometrical and structural properties of these structures has been done. Metallic micro lattice are composed of micro struts. These struts are arranged in different geometrical orientations like honeycomb, folded and foam. On the basis of stress behavior, there are Bending Dominated Structures and Stress Dominated Structures found in open-cell and closed-cell respectively. They have a very good energy absorbing capacity. It was found that in comparison to stretch dominated structures, bending dominated structures had a very low stiffness and low failure strength. Study on energy absorption and damping performance showed that micro lattice has greater efficiency in terms of energy absorption and damping in terms of any other metallic materials available. Further, the thermal expansion study showed that the lattice material undergoes zero or negative thermal expansion. Further, different applications of micro lattice has also been presented.