New manufacturing methods, particularly powder-based processes, are gaining momentum in industry, as they enhance supply-chain resilience, shorten lead times, and enable design freedom. Additive manufacturing is an emerging technology platform at the center of this shift. Yet most commercial alloys were originally developed for casting and thermomechanical processing, not for powder routes. As a result, powder metallurgy has largely focused on adapting processing strategies to manage defects inherited from legacy compositions. My approach reverses this logic. Instead of adapting the process to the alloy, I design alloys specifically for powder processing with the goal to simplify qualification and manufacturing.

In this talk, I present a chemistry-driven framework for alloy design. By tailoring powder chemistry and microstructure, the material sinters more readily and develops superior properties in the final component. Through control of thermodynamics and kinetics, the powder is intrinsically adapted to the process, while computational combinatorial screening guides the identification of promising compositions. Using this strategy, I showcase the development of a new family of Ni-based alloys with compositional features that guide the microstructural evolution, optimized for powder routes. These alloys reduce processing demands while delivering improved mechanical performance.

Bio

Yannick Naunheim is currently a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His current research involves the co-design of chemistry, structure and kinetics in functional and industrial applications. Before joining the lab, he obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of Christopher A. Schuh from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his Ph.D., Yannick graduated with a B.Sc and M.Sc from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in Industrial Engineering and Materials Engineering, respectively.