About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Additive Manufacturing Materials, Processes and Applications for Energy Industry
|
| Presentation Title |
Forging Fusion-Grade Steels in the 3D Printer: The Power of In-Situ Microstructure Control |
| Author(s) |
Dylan Cuskelly, George Maddison, Petr Vacek, Simon Fairclough, Paul Midgley, Matteo Seita |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Dylan Cuskelly |
| Abstract Scope |
Our work focuses on developing ultra-high strength steels by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) via in-situ microstructure control. Conventional thermo-mechanical processing struggles to produce the highly refined, non-equilibrium microstructures which are required for refractory steels to withstand the extreme environments found in next-generation fusion reactors. Metal additive manufacturing, however, significantly expands the processing space for high-performance steels, uniquely enabling the design and development of complex, metastable microstructures. We use L-PBF to tailor the microstructure of different steels—including primary phases, secondary phase precipitates, and dislocation density—by dynamically adjusting the thermal profiles and laser processing parameters. This precise level of in-situ microstructure control provides the unprecedented ability to target critical phase transformations and microstructural refinement during the manufacturing process. This work establishes a new paradigm for adaptive performance-driven additive manufacturing of steels, bridging the gap between advanced process control and the rigorous material performance demands of future fusion energy systems. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Phase Transformations, Iron and Steel, Additive Manufacturing |