People in additive manufacturingStarring professor Moataz Attallah

Who are the people advancing additive manufacturing and what are their stories? What inspires them? How do they see the future of AM? In this serie of interviews we will meet some of the amazing persons who have given their heart into additive manufacturing and 3D printing.

Biography

Professor Moataz Attallah holds a chair in advanced materials processing at the School of Metallurgy and Materials University of Birmingham. His research focuses on developing a metallurgical understanding of the material-process interaction in additive manufacturing of metallic materials focusing on the process impact on the microstructure and structural integrity development. His research is conducted through research partnerships with various companies in the aerospace, defence, medical, space, and nuclear energy sectors. He co-authored over 150 journal and conference papers, 3 book chapters, and is a co-inventor on 8 patent applications. He sits on the advisory board and acts as a consultant for companies and universities in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. 

How You met 3D printing for the first time?

The first experience was through Prof. Yasser Hosni who taught me about advanced manufacturing at the American University in Cairo in 1999. Prof. Hosni was a visiting professor from the University of Central Florida, where he worked closely with the space and medical industries in Florida on (what used to be called at that time) Rapid Prototyping. At that time, the topic was primarily focused on polymers. However, following my appointment at the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in 2010, I joined the group of my mentor Prof. Xinhua Wu (currently at Monash University) as the junior faculty member, who introduced me to the world of metal 3D printing. Prof. Wu built at that time a centre of excellence on netshape additive manufacturing technologies, including both direct energy deposition and laser powder bed fusion. I got quickly sucked into a range of projects on 3D printing across several sectors.

What inspired You in 3D printing?

I come from a welding materials science background. The problems that we experience in metal 3D printing are very similar to the problems encountered in welding, except probably more sophisticated. I was amazed by the pace of the technology development and maturation when it came to the application, while having a number of scientific curiosities related to it unresolved. To be fair, in 2010 a lot of problems were unsolved, and that gave my group a chance to work an expand in various topics.

You are known for advanced material research with additive manufacturing. How the story started?

Birmingham had a unique research infrastructure, with experimental facilities that enabled rapid technology maturation. It was inspiring to see that you can move rather quickly from powders into creating a component in a very short period. Among the key pieces of equipment we have is a hot isostatic press, which is now seen as essential as a way to improve the mechanical behaviour of AMed materials. This enabled us to be publish a large number of research papers on that topic. At the same time, we started a project on AM of Ni-superalloys. Strange enough, during my postdoctoral research, I studied in depth the causes of weld cracking in Ni-superalloys. That knowledge came out very handy, and enabled us to make great improvements in the processability of these alloys, eventually winning Safran group Innovation prize in 2013 and an award from the UK and French ministries of defence for our contribution to this field. During those years, I was lucky to work with a great team and a number of mentors, including Prof. Roger Reed (currently at Oxford University), the late Prof. Mike Loretto, and my colleague Dr. Nick Adkins. They all contributed to my group’s success and provided me with a great support, especially at the moment when the research group grew to have 36 researchers.

 What are you main interests with 3D printing today?

I am interested in research in functional materials 3D printing, especially magnetic and shape memory materials. I believe a great value can be achieved through printing these materials. From there, I am also interested in working on microstructural control, whereby AM can be used to tailor the properties and performance at the very early stages of material fabrication. Some of my current projects look into functionally graded materials, which has been for a number of years of great interest to many researchers working in the AM field. I can see a great potential for several applications. From a sector viewpoint, my focus in the coming years will be in both the space and energy sectors.

You are organizing a workshop about 4D printing in June 2022. Tell us more about this. 

I have a current PhD student (Anastassia Milleret) who is working on AM of magnetic shape memory alloys. This is a class of material that will experience a phase transformation upon the application of a magnetic field. It has a great potential in being applied in energy harvesting and sensing. The idea of printing a part that can move on the application of an external stimulus is highly stimulating and I see a lot of work being produced in this field. This (free) event will bring experts from all over the world to present their recent work in the field of 4D printing. Link to the event https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/metallurgy-materials/news/events/2022/animate-materials-workshop-2022-details.aspx

How do you see 3D printing developing in 5-10 years from now?

The world is about to undertake a huge exercise focusing on electrification of transportation (cars, planes, etc…). This will put a lot of pressures on rare earths materials and also put a great emphasis on the need to recycle the materials that are required to manufacture the batteries and other electrical components (e.g. copper). I can see 3D printing contributing to the field. Printing of magnetic materials, copper, and potentially electric battery materials is likely to witness some growth over the next decade. 

In terms of the equipment, I hope to see an improvement in the process throughput to allow 3D printing to achieve higher production rates, and also for the machines to develop to become self-adaptive and reconfigurable. We will see more lasers (or other heat sources) being used in the systems. We will see more reliance on process monitoring which will enable the process to ‘correct’ any defects on-the-fly, using advanced AI-driven tools. 

I also hope to see new materials being developed that are process specific (e.g. alloy classes that are specific to LPBF or binder jetting). There are a lot of good activities going in that direction, most notably the work by DesktopMetal in the USA and Alloyed Ltd in the UK.  

How would you guide students, start-ups and entrepreneurs to approach 3D printing?

The majority of the successful start-ups and academics who work in the field of 3D printing come from a materials science background, supported by a good knowledge in design and materials modelling. A number of successful start-ups (e.g. Carbon 3D, DesktopMetal, etc.) owe their success to their great materials science research, which helped push the technology rapidly. It is important for the entrepreneurs to support the new initiatives in the field which are supported by solid materials science to allow the technology to progress faster.