Progress in Multi-Material Laser Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing

Multi-material laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) enables the direct production of integrated material-structure-functional components for extreme service environments. This presentation reviews key advancements developed at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE), CAS. To overcome primary industrial bottlenecks involving quality, efficiency, and cost, three core innovations are introduced: external-field-assisted oscillation to eliminate interfacial cracking, vacuum-air-blade-assisted powder removal and recoating to enable fast multi-powder layer deposition, and dual-mode powder sieving to achieve high-purity material recovery of mixed dissimilar powders. Integrated into production-grade AMM equipment, these breakthroughs empower advanced applications, including biomimetic Al-Ni heterojunctions, electro-thermal smart actuators, and AI-accelerated metamaterial discovery. Ultimately, multi-material LPBF drives a paradigm shift from geometric 3D printing to site-specific material programming.

Prof Chao WEI is the deputy director of the Research Centre for Laser Extreme Manufacturing at Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He worked at the Shanghai Aerospace Academy for 10 years and had extensive experience in aerospace manufacturing. His research focuses on multi-material laser-based additive manufacturing and laser-involved hybrid processing of difficult-to-machine materials. He was recognized as a "World's Top 2% Scientist" published by Stanford University every year and received the Best Paper Award at the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing in 2022 (ranked first in the manufacturing academic community).

Since returning to China from the UK in 2022, he has leaded several important projects, including those funded by the National Key Research and Development Program, and the CAS Leading-Edge Technology Program. He also funded by youth talent grants from the Chinese national, CAS, and Zhejiang Province.

He currently serves as a young editorial board member of the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, a member of the Extreme Manufacturing Branch of the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering, a Chartered Engineer/Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK), and a member of the Young Committee of the UK Laser Users Association.