Undergrad Education / Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) / Electroforming Fusion Reactor Components on Additive Manufactured Mandrels
In your project you will develop electroforming methods utilizing mandrels additive manufactured from conductive polymers to replace the existing machined-aluminum mandrel technique. You will fabricate and test RF and vacuum vessel components, and refine the electroforming process to reduce surface roughness and improve mechanical properties. Conductive-composite PLA filaments now enable conductive mandrels to be 3D printed on desktop FDM 3D printers (see pictures below), reducing development time and cost. Utilizing additive manufacture of mandrels enables complex geometries not possible with conventional machining at a fraction of the cost, and with rapid production time. These mandrels may be used to electroform RF components such as waveguides, antennas, or vacuum vessel components. The electroforming processes promotes recycling of scrap metal; scrap metal may be dissolved in-solution and deposited onto the mandrel in a new form, allowing direct recycling into new components by the dissolution / deposition process.
Fusion reactors of the future will not be machined, they will be grown. Electroforming is a process similar to electroplating, where metals or alloys are electrolytically grown by deposition onto a pre-fabricated form or mandrel. A conductive mandrel cathode (negative electrode) and source material anode (positive electrode) are immersed in an electrolyte bath containing a water-soluble metal salt. Current flow through the solution electrolytically dissolves metal from the anode and deposits it onto the surface of the cathode. Electroforming processes are used to fabricate components in geometries that are not achievable with conventional machining. In current industrial processes, an aluminum mandrel is conventionally machined to the internal geometry of the desired component and a copper or metal-alloy shell is electroformed around it. The aluminum mandrel is then removed by dissolving it out in a concentrated sodium hydroxide bath. Machining and subsequent removal of the aluminum mandrel is a key limitation in the electroforming process, both in the time required to machine the mandrel and geometric limitations due to the conventional machining process.
In your project you will develop electroforming methods utilizing mandrels additive manufactured from conductive polymers to replace the existing machined-aluminum mandrel technique. You will fabricate and test RF and vacuum vessel components, and refine the electroforming process to reduce surface roughness and improve mechanical properties. Conductive-composite PLA filaments now enable conductive mandrels to be 3D printed on desktop FDM 3D printers (see pictures below), reducing development time and cost. Utilizing additive manufacture of mandrels enables complex geometries not possible with conventional machining at a fraction of the cost, and with rapid production time. These mandrels may be used to electroform RF components such as waveguides, antennas, or vacuum vessel components. The electroforming processes promotes recycling of scrap metal; scrap metal may be dissolved in-solution and deposited onto the mandrel in a new form, allowing direct recycling into new components by the dissolution / deposition process.
https://www.jlab.org/sites/default/files/accel/docs/Seminar_PresentationsElectroforming%20applied%20to%20accelerator%20components.pdf
https://journals.aps.org/prab/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.24.082002
Head to MIT's UROP site to apply for this opportunity.