School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, ChinaMetal additive manufacturing; Multi-material additive manufacturing; Hybrid manufacturing
Dr. Wei Fan is a Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), where he focuses on multi-material additive manufacturing and hybrid manufacturing based on additive processes. He received his Ph.D., Master’s, and Bachelor’s degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from NPU between 2009 and 2021. From 2022 to 2024, he conducted postdoctoral research at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Dr. Fan is a member of the Additive Manufacturing and Innovative Design team led by Professors Xin Lin and Weidong Huang. The team hosts several national and international research platforms, including the International Joint Research Center for Aerospace Material-Structure Integrated Design and Additive Manufacturing Equipment Technology, and the Key Laboratory of High-Performance Metal Additive Manufacturing and Innovative Design, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. They have also established the NPU-Airbus Joint Laboratory for Additive Manufacturing in collaboration with Airbus Europe.
The team conducts cutting-edge research in areas such as additive manufacturing and innovative design, precision solidification theory and technologies, and multiscale thermo-mechanical-microstructural modeling and simulation of materials processing. To date, they have published over 500 academic papers and hold more than 50 invention patents related to additive manufacturing. Their technologies serve over 100 industrial partners across sectors such as aerospace, aviation, power, and energy. Research outcomes have been successfully applied to major national programs including the C919 aircraft and the Tianwen-1 Mars mission. The team’s industrial spin-off, BLT (Bright Laser Technologies), became the first 3D printing company listed on China’s STAR Market and is now among the global leaders in the field.
The advancement of human civilization has been closely tied to our growing ability to harness extreme environments. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has brought about a revolutionary transformation in the fabrication of materials designed for such conditions. This special issue aims to highlight the transformative role of additive manufacturing in enabling high-performance and multifunctional materials—including alloys, polymers, ceramics, and composites—for applications in extreme temperature, radiation, corrosion, pressure, and mechanical stress environments. We invite contributions that explore, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Design of 3D printable materials for extreme environments;
- Assessment of the capability of traditional materials for extreme environments in AM;
- AM of materials for extreme environments with enhanced performance;
- Fabrication of multi-material components for extreme environments by AM;
- Modelling and simulation of AM processed materials in extreme environments.