3D Printing Nickel Single Crystals Using Laser Additive Manufacturing Technology
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This study was reported in several Japanese newspapers, Japanese and overseas websites

We have succeeded in fabricating a nickel single crystal with only a very few crystalline defects by irradiating nickel powder with a large-radius, flat-top laser beam (i.e., a laser beam whose intensity is uniform across a cross-section of the beam). The seed of single crystal was not used. This technique may be used to fabricate a wide variety of single-crystalline materials, including heat-resistant materials for jet engines and gas turbines.

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[Articles published in 2023]
Effect of scan strategy on the formation of a pure nickel single-crystal structure using a flat-top laser beam via laser powder bed fusion
D. E. Jodi, T. Kitashima, M. Watanabe, Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, Vol. 24, (1), (2023) 2201380. (Click and open)

High-temperature microstructural stability of pure Ni fabricated by laser powder bed fusion using Gaussian and flat-top beam profiles
D. E. Jodi, T. Kitashima, A. Singh, M. Watanabe, Materials Characterization, Vol. 200 (2023) 112897. (Click and open)