Provided is a potassium titanate powder that can avoid safety and health concerns and concurrently, during use in a friction material, can give excellent frictional properties. A potassium titanate powder is a powder formed of bar-like potassium titanate particles having an average length of 30 μm or more, an average breadth of 10 μm or more, and an average aspect ratio of 1.5 or more, wherein the bar-like potassium titanate particles are represented by a composition formula K.sub.2Ti.sub.nO.sub.2n+1 (where n=5.5 to 6.5).

A three-dimensional metallic foam is fabricated with an active oxide material for use as an anode for lithium batteries. The porous metal foam, which can be fabricated by a freeze-casting process, is used as the anode current collector of the lithium battery. The porous metal foam can be heat-treated to form an active oxide material to form on the surface of the metal foam. The oxide material acts as the three-dimensional active material that reacts with lithium ions during charging and discharging.

Provided are a jet device and systems and methods using the jet device for manufacturing objects by additive manufacturing, especially titanium and titanium alloy objects, wherein the jet device directs a cooling gas across a liquid molten pool, or to impinge on the liquid molten pool, or to impinge upon a solidified material adjacent to a liquid-solid boundary of the liquid molten pool, or to impinge on an as-solidified material, or any combination thereof, during the additive manufacturing process. The application of the cooling gas can result in an additively manufactured metal product having refined grain structure with a high proportion of the grains being approximately equiaxed, and can yield an additively manufactured product exhibiting improvements in strength, fatigue resistance, and durability.

A metallic part is disclosed. The part may comprise a functionally graded monolithic structure characterized by a variation between a first material composition of a tubular preform and a second material composition of at least one of a secondary structural element wherein each of the first material composition and the second material composition comprises at least one of a titanium metal or an alloy of titanium. The first material composition may comprise an alpha-beta titanium alloy. The second material composition may comprise a beta titanium alloy.

A low melt superalloy powder mixture is provided for use with additive manufacturing or welding metal components or portions thereof. The low melt superalloy powder may include by weight about 9.5% to about 10.5% chromium, about 2.9% to about 3.4% cobalt, about 8.0% to about 9.0% aluminum, about 3.8% to about 4.3% tungsten, about 0.8% to about 1.2% molybdenum, about 10% to about 20% tantalum, about 3% to about 12% hafnium, and at least 40% nickel.

A powder treatment assembly and method for treating a feedstock powder of feedstock particles includes directing the feedstock powder into a plasma chamber within a reactor, exposing the feedstock powder to a plasma field generated by a plasma source to form a treated powder having treated particles with an increased average sphericity relative to the feedstock particles, and supplying a hot gas sheath flow downstream of the plasma chamber, the hot gas sheath flow substantially surrounding the treated powder.

An implant can be implantable into a human body and can include a metallic substrate and a ceramic layer. The metallic substrate can be formed by additive manufacturing. The metallic substrate can be engageable with a bone. The metallic substrate can include an inner surface, an outer surface, and a plurality of retention features. The inner surface can define a plurality of pores configured to promote bone ingrowth into the metallic substrate. The plurality of retention features can include a proximal portion connected to the outer surface and the proximal portion can define a proximal width. The ceramic layer can be a bearing surface that can be spray coated to the metallic substrate and formed around the retention features to interlock the ceramic layer with the metallic substrate.

The present invention relates to granular composite density enhancement, and related methods and compositions. The applications where these properties are valuable include but are not limited to: 1) additive manufacturing (“3D printing”) involving metallic, ceramic, cermet, polymer, plastic, or other dry or solvent-suspended powders or gels, 2) concrete materials, 3) solid propellant materials, 4) cermet materials, 5) granular armors, 6) glass-metal and glass-plastic mixtures, and 7) ceramics comprising (or manufactured using) granular composites.

A multi-stage gas atomization preparation method of titanium alloy spherical powder for a 3D printing technology includes the following steps: bar preparation and machining step, multi-stage gas atomization powder preparation step through vacuum induction, and powder screening step. The collision probability of the metal droplets at the gas atomization stage is reduced by controlling the gas atomization pressure and the feeding speed of the titanium alloy electrode bar in a hierarchical manner, so that the collaborative control of the particle size and the surface quality of the titanium alloy 3D printing powder in the gas atomization preparation process is realized.

The present invention relates to a method for producing metal-comprising geometrically complex pieces and/or parts. The method is specially indicated for highly performant components. It is disclosed a method for the production of complex geometry, and even large, highly performant metal-comprising components in a cost effective way. The method is also indicated for the construction of components with internal features and voids. The method is also beneficial for light construction. The method allows the reproduction of bio-mimetic structures and other advanced structures for topological performance optimization.