| Abstract Scope |
Mechanonanosynthesis (MNS) is a unique powder milling process, based off mechanical alloying, whereby in situ molecular cracking and chemical reactions with the volume fraction of these hard nuclei sized products controlled simply by the processing time. More important, these powders have very high internal energy, are homogenous on the powder particle scale, with nuclei sized phase transformations, producing a powder form ideal for direct additive manufacturing. Several systems have been explored and preliminary consolidation using traditional powder consolidation techniques of cold, followed by hot isostatic pressing consistently resulted in nanometer microstructural features. The possible systems and products that can be produced by this MNS process are virtually limitless as highlighted by several systems. The unique MNS processing produces homogeneous spherical-like tens of micron-sized powder particles and combined with additive manufacturing may provide for very rapid alloy development with extremely fine-scale microstructures accessing a wide range of “engineered” materials. |