(ORNL: Oak Ridge, TN) -- Using neutrons to see the additive manufacturing process at the atomic level, scientists have shown that they can measure strain in a material as it evolves and track how atoms move in response to stress.

“The automotive, aerospace, clean energy, and tool-and-die industries—any industry that needs complex and high-performance parts—could use additive manufacturing,” says Alex Plotkowski, materials scientist in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Materials Science and Technology division and the lead scientist of the experiment. Plotkowski and his colleagues reported their findings in Nature Communications.

 …