Selective Electron Beam Melting: A new Way to Auxetic Cellular Structures

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the build up and characterisation of well defined auxetic structures from Titanium alloys through Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM).The negative Poisson’s ratio of auxetic structures make them interesting candidates for a wide range of applications (e.g. joining of dissimilar materials). Up to date auxetic cellulars have mainly been produced through volumetric compression of conventional foams. However, by using SEBM we are able to produce structures of any geometry in a well defined manner. This opens an almost limitless field for new cellular auxetics and the tuning of their properties. In the following we will introduce a simple self designed auxetic structure and show first results for the mechanical characterisation of that structure.