Investigation on energy absorption characteristics of thin-walled structures fabricated by bound metal deposition without using debinding chemical reagents

This study investigated the influence of the processing parameters and structure designs on the energy absorption characteristics of the thin-walled metal structures that were fabricated by the bound metal deposition (BMD) without using debinding chemical reagents. The thin-walled metal structures with various sine function shapes were fabricated by the BMD without using debinding chemical reagents. The specific energy absorption (SEA) parameter of the thin-walled structure with sine function shape containing straight walls (S-sinx) was 7.2 J/g, which was about 2 times higher than that of the two-dimensional metal structures fabricated previously. The higher SEA parameter of the S-sinx structure was mainly attributed to the high ductility of the printed materials for eliminating the load fluctuations, the addition of rigid horizontal walls for improving the structural stiffness and the addition of vertical walls for improving the structural stiffness and load stability. The results are valuable for developing thin-walled metal structures with enhanced energy absorption applications using the relatively new BMD method in the automotive, aerospace and civil industries.