A rapid development method of high-performance metal part materials

Abstract

This invention discloses a rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials, comprising the following steps: (1) defining the geometry, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured; (2) screening and determining various materials that can be used to manufacture high-performance metal parts; (3) printing various test blocks based on micro-casting, forging, milling, and grinding processes using different process parameters, analyzing the performance of the test blocks, and establishing a mapping relationship between process parameters and performance; (4) performing iterative optimization; (5) calculating the cost of part development; and (6) obtaining the material composition required for the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured, and simultaneously obtaining their corresponding process parameters. This invention effectively reduces the difficulty of developing high-performance metal parts materials.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of materials development technology, and in particular to a rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials. Background Technology

[0002] High-performance metal parts are widely used in large-scale, critical equipment, and their performance and quality directly affect the efficiency and cost of operation. For over a century, the global machinery manufacturing industry has employed a multi-step processing model involving casting, forging, welding, heat treatment, and milling. Traditional manufacturing of metal parts involves large-scale smelting, casting, forging, and milling equipment, with each process being separate, lengthy, and inefficient. Furthermore, for large, complex structural parts that are difficult to forge, free forging followed by milling is often used, resulting in significant raw material waste. Simultaneously, energy consumption and tool wear during manufacturing are also prominent issues, leading to severe environmental pollution. In particular, the development of high-performance alloy materials involves the proportioning of alloying elements, often requiring multiple iterations of material development and testing processes, resulting in substantial economic and time costs for the entire new material development process.

[0003] Traditional parts manufacturing follows a design process of structural design, material selection, and process selection. This process only allows for material selection based on known parameters once the structure and process are largely determined. However, structure, materials, and processes often interact and constrain each other. This frequently leads to situations where complex structures lack suitable high-performance materials, while high-performance materials place high demands on processes and equipment. These factors often prevent the design and development of high-performance metal parts from being completed, causing significant difficulties. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The purpose of this invention is to provide a rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials, so as to solve the problems existing in the prior art and reduce the difficulty of developing high-performance metal parts materials.

[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following solution:

[0006] This invention provides a rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials, comprising the following steps:

[0007] (1) Determine the geometry, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured;

[0008] (2) Based on the geometric shape, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts determined in step (1), screen and determine various raw materials that can be used to manufacture the high-performance metal parts, wherein the raw materials are metal alloys or metal elements.

[0009] (3) Using the various raw materials determined in step (2), various new materials are recombined according to different proportions as needed. Based on the micro-casting, forging, milling and grinding forming process, and using different process parameters and different new materials, various test blocks are printed. The mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability of the test blocks are analyzed. The machinability includes milling performance, casting performance and welding performance. The mapping relationship between process parameters and performance is established based on the mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability. All the obtained data are stored and added to the database.

[0010] (4) Based on the geometric shape specified in step (1), determine the design domain of the structure of the high-performance metal part and perform topology optimization design on the structure of the high-performance metal part based on the mechanical properties specified in step (1); First, use the variable density method to use the density of the material unit as the design variable for topology optimization design; Second, based on the database obtained in step (3), select new materials and their process parameters that fully meet the performance requirements in step (1), determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density of 1, and determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density greater than 0 and less than 1, thereby obtaining the entire optimized part structure and its spatial material-process distribution;

[0011] (5) Calculate the total cost of part development based on the weights of material cost, time cost, and manufacturing cost;

[0012] (6) Finally, the optimal structural design and required material composition distribution of the high-performance metal parts and their corresponding process parameters are obtained, the rapid development of the materials of the high-performance metal parts is completed, and the material composition-structure-performance-process-cost mapping relationship is obtained.

[0013] Preferably, the mechanical properties to be determined in step (1) include elasticity, plasticity, toughness, stiffness, yield strength, tensile strength and fatigue strength.

[0014] Preferably, the physical properties to be determined in step (1) include density, melting point, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, magnetic conductivity, and thermal expansion.

[0015] Preferably, the chemical properties to be determined in step (1) include corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance.

[0016] Preferably, additive manufacturing is performed in step (3) using a micro casting and milling forming machine.

[0017] The present invention achieves the following technical effects compared to the prior art:

[0018] The rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials of this invention effectively reduces the development difficulty of high-performance metal parts materials. This method utilizes a micro-casting and milling forming machine to perform additive manufacturing on test pieces. The metal micro-casting and milling composite ultra-short process intelligent manufacturing technology used in the micro-casting and milling forming machine is a multi-energy field composite shape and quality control collaborative manufacturing technology. It integrates the advantages of three processes: free incremental forming, forced equal-volume forming, and controlled deformation heat treatment, improving the manufacturing efficiency of large components while simultaneously ensuring performance quality control and forming accuracy. This significantly improves the manufacturing efficiency of test pieces, thereby helping to reduce the development difficulty of high-performance metal parts materials.

[0019] It also has the following advantages:

[0020] (1) Based on the micro casting, forging, milling and grinding forming process, the range of material types that can be selected is wide, such as metal, ceramic or polymer, and the material state can be such as sheet (which can be part of the part as a matrix), wire, powder, etc.

[0021] (2) Rapid material development: After different material compositions and forming parameters are changed, corresponding test blocks can be directly formed to conduct various performance tests. Even the milling performance and hardness of the material can be quickly obtained by detecting the force during synchronous milling and grinding.

[0022] (3) Not limited by processing equipment, through micro-zone melting, forging, heat treatment, milling and grinding, only one micro casting forging and milling forming machine tool is needed to form ultra-large size parts (depending on the machine tool stroke);

[0023] (4) Based on the principle of additive layer manufacturing, it can process any complex shape in principle and realize a gradient structure of multiple materials. During layer manufacturing, the surface is strengthened layer by layer (in fact, the internal is strengthened).

[0024] (5) To achieve 4D printing, the three-dimensional coordinates not only contain structural information, but also material information, that is, the corresponding spatial position has definite material information;

[0025] (6) The potential of materials can be further explored, for example, by adjusting process parameters or forming paths, actively utilizing the anisotropy of materials, and fully leveraging their performance. Another example is by setting specific microstructures, honeycomb structures, array structures, etc., to control macroscopic properties. Yet another example is by refining grains through rolling, strengthening with finer nano-ceramic powder (as crystal nuclei), and even actively controlling crystal orientation, etc. Attached Figure Description

[0026] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0027] Figure 1 This is a flowchart of the rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials according to the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0028] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0029] The purpose of this invention is to provide a rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials, so as to solve the problems existing in the prior art and reduce the difficulty of developing high-performance metal parts materials.

[0030] To make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more apparent and understandable, the present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0031] like Figure 1 As shown: This embodiment provides a rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials, including the following steps:

[0032] (1) Determine the geometry, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured;

[0033] (2) Based on the geometric shape, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts determined in step (1), screen and determine various raw materials that can be used to manufacture high-performance metal parts. The raw materials are metal alloys or metal elements.

[0034] (3) Using the various raw materials determined in step (2), various new materials are recombined according to different proportions as needed. Based on the micro-casting, forging, milling and grinding forming process, various test blocks are printed using different process parameters and different new materials. The mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability of the test blocks are analyzed. Machinability includes milling performance, casting performance and welding performance. The mapping relationship between process parameters and performance is established based on mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability. All the obtained data are stored and added to the database.

[0035] In the process of additive manufacturing of test blocks using micro-casting, forging, milling and grinding forming process, a light scanning device is used to perform a light scan after each layer is printed, thereby realizing layer-by-layer light scanning in the manufacturing process, thereby detecting and recording defects such as pores and cracks in the test blocks. In other words, process monitoring is realized during the manufacturing process, and the defect situation in test blocks made of specific materials can be quickly understood.

[0036] (4) Based on the geometric shape specified in step (1), determine the design domain of the structure of the high-performance metal part and perform topology optimization design on the structure of the high-performance metal part based on the mechanical properties specified in step (1); First, use the variable density method to use the density of the material unit as the design variable for topology optimization design; Second, based on the database obtained in step (3), select new materials and their process parameters that fully meet the performance requirements in step (1), determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density of 1, and determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density greater than 0 and less than 1, thereby obtaining the entire optimized part structure and its spatial material-process distribution;

[0037] It should be noted that macroscopic performance can be controlled by setting specific microstructures, honeycomb structures, array structures, etc. For example, grain refinement can be achieved by rolling, strengthening by refining nano-ceramic powder (as crystal nuclei), and even actively controlling crystal orientation, etc.

[0038] (5) Calculate the total cost of part development based on the weights of material cost, time cost, and manufacturing cost;

[0039] (6) Finally, the optimal structural design and required material composition distribution of high-performance metal parts and their corresponding process parameters are obtained, and the rapid development of materials for high-performance metal parts is completed. At the same time, the material composition-structure-performance-process-cost mapping relationship is obtained.

[0040] In this embodiment, the mechanical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include elasticity, plasticity, toughness, stiffness, yield strength, tensile strength, fatigue strength, etc.

[0041] In this embodiment, the physical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include density, melting point, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, magnetic conductivity, thermal expansion, etc.

[0042] In this embodiment, the chemical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include corrosion resistance, oxidation resistance, etc.

[0043] In this embodiment, additive manufacturing is carried out in step (3) using a micro casting forging and milling forming machine. The metal micro casting forging and milling composite ultra-short process intelligent manufacturing technology used in the micro casting forging and milling forming machine is a multi-energy field composite shape control and quality control collaborative manufacturing technology. It integrates the advantages of three processes: free incremental forming, forced equal-volume forming and controlled deformation heat treatment, which improves the manufacturing efficiency of large components. At the same time, it takes into account performance quality control and forming accuracy, which greatly improves the manufacturing efficiency of test pieces, thereby helping to reduce the difficulty of developing high-performance metal parts materials.

[0044] Furthermore, with the increasing number of development iterations, the database mentioned in step (4) will accumulate more and more data. Using intelligent algorithms such as machine learning, the process parameters corresponding to the target values ​​of various performance characteristics of the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured can be predicted based on the data accumulated in the database, thereby improving development efficiency. Compared to traditional general-purpose simulation software, it does not require in-depth analysis of the influence mechanism of individual process parameters. At the same time, since it does not require complex modeling, analysis, and post-processing, the prediction speed can be significantly improved, and its accuracy continuously increases with the increase in data volume.

[0045] This embodiment of the rapid development method for high-performance metal parts addresses the bottleneck problem that has hindered the rapid engineering of new materials in the past, both domestically and internationally. It requires multiple separate pieces of equipment for casting, forging, welding, heating, and milling, involving step-by-step processes such as forming, machining, joining, heat treatment, performance testing, and quality inspection. This long-term, costly, and repetitive exploration severely impedes the rapid engineering of new materials. The method focuses on collaborative innovation between materials and manufacturing technologies, establishing a theory and technology that combines additive and subtractive processing, and parallel development of new material parts' shape and quality. This breakthrough overcomes the major bottleneck of rapid engineering of new materials. It establishes a mapping relationship between process parameters and performance, and utilizes a highly integrated and optimized micro-casting, forging, and milling parallel single equipment and process for processing performance, process monitoring, and quality inspection. This high-quality, efficient, and low-cost technical route, engineering model, and physical system for developing new materials achieve a disruptive and original innovation in the ultra-short-process, green, intelligent, and rapid engineering development of new materials.

[0046] Its design variables are relatively few, making it easy to implement through programming, and its computational efficiency is also very high. It can be implemented using general topology optimization software such as HyperWorks and ANSYS.

[0047] This specification uses specific examples to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of the present invention. The descriptions of the above embodiments are only for the purpose of helping to understand the method and core ideas of the present invention. Furthermore, those skilled in the art will recognize that, based on the ideas of the present invention, there will be changes in the specific implementation methods and application scope. Therefore, the content of this specification should not be construed as a limitation of the present invention.

Claims

1. A rapid development method for high-performance metal parts materials, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: (1) Determine the geometry, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics, and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts to be manufactured; (2) Based on the geometric shape, weight, mechanical properties, surface characteristics and required physical and chemical properties of the high-performance metal parts determined in step (1), screen and determine various raw materials that can be used to manufacture the high-performance metal parts, wherein the raw materials are metal alloys or metal elements. (3) Using the various raw materials determined in step (2), various new materials are recombined according to different proportions as needed. Based on the micro-casting, forging, milling and grinding forming process, and using different process parameters and different new materials, various test blocks are printed. The mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability of the test blocks are analyzed. The machinability includes milling performance, casting performance and welding performance. The mapping relationship between process parameters and performance is established based on the mechanical properties, physical properties, chemical properties and machinability. All the obtained data are stored and added to the database. (4) Based on the geometric shape specified in step (1), determine the design domain of the structure of the high-performance metal part and perform topology optimization design on the structure of the high-performance metal part based on the mechanical properties specified in step (1); First, use the variable density method to use the density of the material unit as the design variable for topology optimization design; Second, based on the database obtained in step (3), select new materials and their process parameters that fully meet the performance requirements in step (1), determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density of 1, and determine the new materials and their process parameters at the position with a relative density greater than 0 and less than 1, thereby obtaining the entire optimized part structure and its spatial material-process distribution; (5) Calculate the total cost of part development based on the weights of material cost, time cost, and manufacturing cost; (6) Finally, the optimal structural design and required material composition distribution of the high-performance metal parts and their corresponding process parameters are obtained, the rapid development of the materials of the high-performance metal parts is completed, and the material composition-structure-performance-process-cost mapping relationship is obtained.

2. The rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mechanical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include elasticity, plasticity, toughness, stiffness, yield strength, tensile strength and fatigue strength.

3. The rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials according to claim 1, characterized in that: The physical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include density, melting point, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, magnetic conductivity, and thermal expansion.

4. The rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials according to claim 1, characterized in that: The chemical properties that need to be determined in step (1) include corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance.

5. The rapid development method for high-performance metal part materials according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step (3), additive manufacturing is performed using a micro casting and milling forming machine.

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