Use of a Robotized Laser Powder-Feed Metal Additive Manufacturing System for Fabricating Metallic Metamaterials

Abstract

Metamaterials are materials engineered to have properties that are naturally unavailable. They hold potentials for developing novel products to be used in wave filtering, acoustic cloaking, vibration control, and energy harvesting. A novel robotized laser powder-feed metal additive manufacturing system has recently been developed for fabricating metallic metamaterials in the Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing in Southern Methodist University. Five types of metallic metamaterials with an enlarged positive Poisson’s ratio, a negative Poisson’s ratio, a bi-stable property, a non-positive coefficient of thermal expansion, and frequency band gaps were designed and additively manufactured by using the developed system.