en.Wedoany.com Reported - A new format for ensuring measurement uniformity has been introduced in Russia's nuclear industry for testing materials used in 3D printing—namely, certified metal powder samples that will serve as a standard for measurement accuracy control.
Modern manufacturing, especially in high-tech sectors such as the nuclear industry and mechanical engineering, is increasingly adopting additive manufacturing technologies. Parts are printed layer by layer from extremely fine metal powders. The quality of this material is a critical parameter that directly determines the strength, reliability, and safety of the finished product.
Previously, different laboratories testing metal powder compositions (such as particle size control, density, and flowability tests) could produce results that were not comparable with one another. This led to difficulties in raw material acceptance, increased scrap risk, and prolonged certification processes. To eliminate this uncertainty, specialists from the Fuel Division of Rosatom (with four subsidiary enterprises participating), in collaboration with colleagues from Rostec, developed and certified a special standard sample. This is a metal powder composition made from PT-3V titanium alloy—its properties were measured with high precision at the Bochvar Institute (which is part of the Fuel Division and also serves as the Chief Scientific Metrology Center for the entire Rosatom corporation).
The new standard will be used for laboratory equipment calibration and adjustment, as well as for verifying the accuracy of metal powder property measurements. In essence, this is a new "measurement ruler" that allows all participants to communicate in the same "language." Enterprises within the industry can now access unified standard values for powder characteristics, such as flowability, apparent density, and permissible error ranges. This effectively establishes a unified metrological foundation, ensuring the comparability of measurement results across different laboratories. Improved data comparability between different production sites and independent laboratories will minimize the risk of scrap and disputes during product acceptance. Certification of raw materials for additive manufacturing will become faster and more transparent. All of this lays a solid foundation for the future large-scale production of powders with stable properties and the overall advancement of additive manufacturing technologies.
Ilya Kavelashvili, Director of the "Additive Technologies" business line at Rosatom's Fuel Division, stated: "The nuclear industry places extremely high demands on the performance and quality of additively manufactured components. We must guarantee this level at every stage of the product lifecycle. Creating certified samples is not only a serious scientific endeavor but also a practical tool in the hands of metrologists, laboratory personnel, and production workers, ensuring unambiguous interpretation of quality control results."
The project also established a new cooperation model, where each participant has a defined role: from the powder producer to the center responsible for distributing batches with guaranteed performance.
Alexander Stelyuk, Deputy General Director for Technical Regulation, Quality, and Metrology at the Bochvar Institute, noted: "We obtained a statistically reliable data foundation and confirmed the most important point: the standard sample produces stable, reproducible results in different cities, on different equipment, and with different operators."
The certification of this new certified standard sample is valid for 10 years, providing stability and predictability for metal powder additive manufacturing work in industries with high-quality requirements.
This demonstrates that Rosatom is continuously carrying out systematic work to establish a regulatory framework for additive technologies and 3D printing in Russia, develop national standards, chart technology roadmaps, and implement unified quality requirements for raw materials and final products manufactured using additive methods, thereby consolidating its technological leadership. These efforts will accelerate the development of additive manufacturing technologies in Russian industrial enterprises.
Additive manufacturing technologies enable the production of components and assemblies that are difficult to manufacture using traditional casting and machining methods. Three-dimensional printing can reduce product weight, optimize material consumption, and shorten production cycles. Modern 3D printers can quickly adjust printing parameters to produce parts from different materials. 3D-printed products are widely used in many fields, from nuclear and space technologies to medicine. Thanks to the introduction of additive technologies, the cycle from new product development to manufacturing has been reduced from months to days. The production process becomes more compact by eliminating the need for molds, casting, and milling, while also optimizing structural weight. At the end-of-life stage, costs can be reduced by up to 90%, as additive manufacturing generates no harmful substances, and material recyclability ensures a waste-free process. 3D printing can produce complex-shaped parts that were previously composed of multiple welded elements. The utilization rate of expensive metals approaches 90%, as only the required volume is melted, rather than being cut from a solid forging.
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