Abstract

The use of nickel electroless plating to enhance the mechanical properties of stainless steel micro lattice structures manufactured using selective laser melting is described. A coating thickness of 17 μm is achieved, and this increases micro lattice specific stiffness by 75% and specific strength by 50%. There is scope for improving the coating process, and hence improving micro lattice mechanical performance. The methodology described here provides a new potential for optimizing micro lattice mechanical performance and can be extended to other cellular materials with different coating technology.

Highlights

  • Metallic microstructures manufactured using selective laser melting (SLM) have potential applications as core materials in sandwich construction and as impact energy absorption devices [1,2]

  • A body centred cubic (BCC) micro lattice gives stable block collapse in which micro struts become plastic in the vicinity of nodes, and the struts rotate about the nodes

  • Enhancement of block specific stiffness and strength can be achieved by using light weight parent materials, e.g., Ti64 [6] or AlSi10Mg [7], or by using other micro lattice topologies, e.g., octet truss [8]

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Summary

Introduction

Metallic microstructures manufactured using selective laser melting (SLM) have potential applications as core materials in sandwich construction and as impact energy absorption devices [1,2]. Other manufacturing techniques can be used to realise micro lattice structures, e.g., electron beam melting (EBM) [9] and photo polymer wave guides [10] In the latter, hollow micro lattice struts can be obtained by creating the polymer lattice and electroless depositing Ni alloy (for example), and subsequently removing the polymer micro lattice, giving ultra lightweight hollow micro lattices [10]. 316L stainless steel BCC micro lattice blocks, manufacture using the procedure described in [13], were electroless plated with Ni‐P, and the blocks were tested under compression in a servo hydraulic machine, in a similar manner to [3,4,5]

Manufacture of Blocks
Block Compression Testing and Results
Finite Element Simulation of Blocks
Findings
Concluding Remarks
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