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Virginia Tech

Exploration of Small-Scale Solid-State Additive Manufacturing for the Repair of Metal Alloys

Abstract

dc:description.abstractgeneral

As parts in any device age, something inevitably breaks. When dealing with a broken metallic part, one can either replace it or repair it. Repairing is generally preferred so long as it is not too costly. Unfortunately, repairing a component is often more expensive due to the material being difficult to work with or the geometry being too intricate to fix. Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, allows precise placement of material to build a part and has allowed the repair of complex parts. However, some materials are severely weakened using traditional additive manufacturing technologies, which melt small amounts of material and force it to cool in place quickly. To combat this, methods that do not require the material to melt could be used. Currently, these methods place a large amount of material at once, causing significant waste if the excess needs to be removed. Therefore, this work aims to create a small-scale device using a traditional milling machine. It was shown to be capable of placing small amounts of material while offering the advantage of not melting the metal. In the future, it could provide an avenue to repair previously unreachable.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Materials Science and Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Materials Science and Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2023

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Gottwald, Ryan Brink
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Yu, Hang
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Zuo, Lei
  • Suchicital, Carlos T. A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:36370
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/113576

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Gottwald, Ryan Brink. Exploration of Small-Scale Solid-State Additive Manufacturing for the Repair of Metal Alloys. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2023. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/113576