Chaitanya G. Mahajan, Ph.D.New Mexico State University
Friday, February 23, 2024, 3:00 - 4:00 PM
In Person JH-109
Title: Digital Alloying using Additive Manufacturing of Metal Precursor Inks
ABSTRACT: Metallic alloy inks have been used with various 3D printing techniques to create functional components such as antennas, inductors, resistors, and biocompatible implants. Most of these printing techniques use premixed metallic alloy inks or nanoalloy particles with a fixed composition to fabricate the functional part. Since the properties of alloys vary with changes in the elemental composition, a printing process that could digitally dispense alloy inks having specific desired compositions would enable different functionalities and is, therefore, highly desirable. A conventional inkjet printer prints a color image on the paper by tightly controlling the relative proportions of each ink (i.e. cyan, yellow, magenta, and black) at a given location in the image. A similar process can be used to print multi-element nanoalloy structures. In this case, each element in the alloy is formulated into its own individual metal ink, and the pixel in the digital file maps to proportions of the elemental inks. This approach allows varying the jetting parameter of the individual metal inks to spatially control the alloy composition. This formation of the desired alloy composition can open the door to numerous applications in biomedical and electronics sectors, among others. The talk will conclude with examples demonstrating how multi-functional printing applies in domains such as lean manufacturing, supply chain management, and sustainable manufacturing
BIO: Dr. Chaitanya G. Mahajan is an assistant professor in the Industrial Engineering Department at New Mexico State University. His research interests include synthesizing new functional materials, designing print strategies for multi-material deposition techniques, enhancing material properties in 3D printed parts, and examining post-processing techniques to develop novel applications on flexible substrates using a wide range of additive printing techniques. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering and M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY.
