Titanium Alloy Has Been Included In The List of 3D-Printed Materials Approved by The FIA in 2021

Currently, the FIA has approved two new high-performance aluminum alloys that can be used for 3D printing in the 2021 season: A6061-RAM1 and A2024-RAM2. Both materials have a higher specific strength, which can save more weight for the car. At the same time, several other 3D printed metal materials have been approved, including Inconel 625, cobalt-chromium alloy and other grades of titanium alloy and steel material.

Till now, the 3D printed metal materials approved by the FIA include:

Aluminum alloy: AlSi10Mg, AlSi7Mg, Al Cl-30AL

Particle Reinforced Aluminum Alloy: A20X, 2024-RAM2, 6061-RAM2

Aluminum-Magnesium Alloy: Scalmalloy

Titanium Alloy: Titanium Gr.1, Titanium Gr.2, Ti-6Al-4V, Ti-5553, Ti-6242

Steel Alloy: 316,304, MS1,15-5PH,17-4PH,300M,4140

Superalloy: Inconel 625, Inconel 718, Cobalt chromium alloy

Beryllium-free copper alloy

In the 2020 season, the Alfa Romeo team " C39 " is equipped with 143 3D printed parts, namely 58 pieces of titanium alloy, 19 pieces of high-performance aluminum alloy and 66 pieces of ordinary aluminum alloy, covering chassis plug-ins, cooling circuit pipes, safety structures, light fairing and other body parts. Using 3D printing to produce these parts reduced the weight of the car by at least 2%, which means a lot to the performance of the F1 car.

In order to further improve racing performance, Alfa Romeo has further increased the use of 3D printed parts in the new racing C41 for the 2021 season to 304. Among them, the proportion of AlSi10Mg, Scalmalloy super alloy, Ti-6-4 and stainless steel parts is 40%, 36%, 22% and 2%, respectively. The parts of these different materials are distributed in different locations in the racing car, so that the total weight of the 3D printed parts on the C41 reaches 14860g, slightly heavier than the 13140g of the C39.

Number of 3D printing materials and parts on Alfa Romeo C39 and C41

As can be seen from the list of 3D printed metal materials released by the FIA, there are many materials that are not the 3D printing materials currently used in the mainstream, and many belong to newly developed materials that have not been fully verified. Therefore, it can also be seen the degree of demand for 3D printing technology and new materials in this field. As pointed out in the article,the aerospace and automotive fields have common needs for 3D printing technology, complex parts manufacturing, lightweight, small batch rapid production.