April 27, 2010 –
Saller and the Ultra Plus SEM in the Zeiss Center.
Engineering undergraduate Brandon Saller recently won a $3,000 research scholarship from the Microscopy Society of America for his analysis of a titanium alloy and the resulting abstract he submitted to the organization’s upcoming Microscopy & Microanalysis 2010 Meeting.
Under the tutelage of CALIT2 senior microscopist John Porter, Saller used state-of-the-art instrumentation in CALIT2’s Carl Zeiss Center of Excellence to determine that the crystalline structure of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy is arranged in a preferred orientation instead of randomly. Such findings have implications for the performance of the material, which primarily is used in aerospace and biomedical applications.
“The end users are not going to put parts in a fighter aircraft, for example, if the parts haven’t been fully certified and if the structure isn’t well-understood,” Porter said. “They have to know they can trust that it’s a reliable part and they have to understand why it has the properties it does.”
Saller’s abstract, “Analysis of Local Texture across Layers in Electron-Beam Melted (EBM) Ti-6Al-4V via Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD),” was identified by editors of the MSA’s official journal as one of the “best two-page abstracts” submitted. In addition to receiving the scholarship, Saller was invited to submit a full manuscript for possible publication in the journal.
The Zeiss Ultra Plus SEM, the South Bay Technology ion beam polishing equipment and the Oxford Instruments electron-backscatter-diffraction camera all played key roles in the research. The findings will lead to continued improvements in the manufacturing method known as layer-build-growth, which was used to create the parts.
Layer-build-growth is a low-volume production method that involves building parts one layer at a time from metal powder. An electron beam melts the powder to create each layer of the part, as defined by a computer-aided-design (CAD) file, eliminating the need for large-scale metal casting and machining.
“Electron-beam melting hold promise as a faster and more cost-effective solution to low-volume production of biomedical and aerospace parts,” Saller said.
The fourth-year student is proud of his accomplishment and plans to attend the national microscopy and microanalysis meeting this August in Portland, Ore. “Winning the MSA scholarship … shows that my research proposal was reviewed and deemed worthy of funding by a panel of scientists outside of UCI,” he said. “Our research has yielded promising results.”
His mentor is pleased, too. “This is great news and a great reflection on the quality of Brandon’s work,” said Porter.
The research also underlies a recent $357,000 seed grant Porter received from DARPA. He and collaborators at NC State University, Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne and Simi Valley, Calif.-based CalRAM will further investigate the electron-beam layer-build method in an effort to build a case for more in-depth research into using the approach for building a higher-temperature titanium alloy.
