Spotlight: Is This the Latest Design by Lisa Frank? No! It’s a Diagram of Crystals in a 3D-Printed Metal.

Almost all solid metals are made of repeating patterns of atoms or “crystals.” Understanding the crystal structure of these metals is an important step in improving metal 3D printing. Metal 3D printers use lasers to rapidly fuse metal dust into solid shapes. This process has a dramatic effect on the metal’s crystal grains.

But the pattern doesn’t face the same way everywhere. It’s separated into grains where the crystal pattern faces different directions. The size, shape and direction of these grains control how the metal behaves overall. For example, smaller grains generally make the metal stronger.

This diagram, which appeared on the cover of the journal Metals, is a microscopic cross section of a piece of metal called Inconel. Each color represents an area where the crystal is facing a different direction. The cubes show the way the crystal is facing in each section. The color also helps show the direction of the crystal. Red means a flat face is pointing up, while blue means a corner is pointing up.