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Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2024) | Viewed by 11649

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Dr. Lehua Liu

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School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Interests: metallic glasses; composites; additive manufacturing; die casting
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Dr. Haokai Dong

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School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Interests: steels; copper alloys; phase transformation; additive manufacturing
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Dr. Haizhou Lu

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School of Mechatronic Engineering, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: additive manufacturing; shape memory alloys
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Dr. Chao Zhao

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School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Interests: additive manufacturing; powder metallurgy; copper alloys; titanium alloys
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Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM, also namely 3D printing) has initiated a revolution in the materials manufacturing industry since it was pioneered in 1980s, owing to its significant advantages of producing complex and/or customized parts with a short lead time. Nowadays, the application of AM is not limited to the fabrication of metals such as steels, high-entropy alloys, and nonferrous alloys, but also their composites in order to meet target service requirements. Copious microstructures, including hierarchically heterogeneous microstructures, multiphase composites, nanosized precipitates, and dislocation networks, have been widely associated with additive manufactured alloys and composites, which have attracted considerable attention from both academic and industrial communities over the years. Undoubtedly, novel microstructures have led to the unexpected outstanding mechanical properties of AM materials that cannot be achieved with conventional synthesis processes, while their underlying connections are not fully understood. Therefore, investigating the microstructural evolution and resultant mechanical properties of AM is of great significance to further develop additive manufactured alloys and composites, even if many challenges remain.

The current research topic welcomes the submission of original research articles, state-of-the-art reviews, and perspectives on recent developments in additive manufactured alloys and composites. Suggested contributions may include, but are not limited to:

High-performance additive manufactured alloys and composites;
Mechanisms of microstructural evolution in additive manufactured alloys and composites;
Relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties;
Numerical simulations for additive manufactured alloys and composites.

Dr. Lehua Liu
Dr. Haokai Dong
Dr. Haizhou Lu
Dr. Chao Zhao
Guest Editors

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

additive manufacturing
microstructures
mechanical properties
alloys
composites

Related Special Issue

Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites (2nd Edition) in Materials

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 158 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites

by Haokai Dong, Haizhou Lu, Chao Zhao and Lehua Liu

Materials 2023, 16(3), 992; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16030992 - 21 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1497

Abstract

The emergence and development of high-performance materials have benefited from the revolution in modern manufacturing technology, in which additive manufacturing (AM) is the most representative over the last four decades [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

Research

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15 pages, 14411 KiB

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Study on the Effect of Microstructure and Inclusions on Corrosion Resistance of Low-N 25Cr-Type Duplex Stainless Steel via Additive Manufacturing

by Yang Gu, Jiesheng Lv, Jianguo He, Zhigang Song, Changjun Wang, Han Feng and Xiaohan Wu

Materials 2024, 17(9), 2068; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17092068 - 28 Apr 2024

Viewed by 355

Abstract

Duplex stainless steels are widely used in many fields due to their excellent corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. However, it is a challenge to achieve duplex microstructure and excellent properties through additive manufacturing. In this work, a 0.09% N 25Cr-type duplex stainless steel was prepared by additive manufacturing (AM) and heat treatment, and its corrosion resistance was investigated. The results show that, compared with S32750 duplex stainless steel prepared by a conventional process, the combination value of film resistance and charge transfer resistance of AM duplex stainless steel was increased by 3.2–5.5 times and the pitting potential was increased by more than 100 mV. The disappearance of residual thermal stress and the reasonable distribution of Cr and N elements in the two phases are the reasons for the improvement of the corrosion resistance of AM duplex stainless steel after heat treatment. In addition, the extremely high purity of AM duplex stainless steel with no visible inclusions resulted in a higher corrosion resistance exhibited at lower pitting-resistance-equivalent number values. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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15 pages, 5001 KiB

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Strengthening Mechanism and Damping Properties of SiC_f/Al-Mg Composites Prepared by Combining Colloidal Dispersion with a Squeeze Melt Infiltration Process

by Guanzhang Lin, Jianjun Sha, Yufei Zu, Jixiang Dai, Cheng Su and Zhaozhao Lv

Materials 2024, 17(7), 1600; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17071600 - 31 Mar 2024

Viewed by 457

Abstract

SiC-fiber-reinforced Al-Mg matrix composites with different mass fractions of Mg were fabricated by combining colloidal dispersion with a squeeze melt infiltration process. The microstructure, mechanical and damping properties, and the corresponding mechanisms were investigated. Microstructure analyses found that SiC_f/Al-Mg composites presented a homogeneous distribution of SiC fibers, and the relative density was higher than 97% when the mass fraction of Mg was less than 20%; the fiber–matrix interface bonded well, and no obvious reaction occurred at the interface. The SiC_f/Al-10Mg composite exhibited the best flexural strength (372 MPa) and elastic modulus (161.7 GPa). The fracture strain of the composites decreased with an increase in the mass fraction of Mg. This could be attributed to the strengthened interfacial bonding due to the introduction of Mg. The damping capacity at RT increased dramatically with an increase in the strain when the strain amplitude was higher than 0.001%, which was better than the alloys with similar composition, demonstrating a positive effect of the SiC fiber on improving the damping capacity of composite; the damping capacity at a temperature beyond 200 °C indicated a monotonic increase tendency with the testing temperature. This could be attributed to the second phase, which formed more strong pinning points and increased the dislocation energy needed to break away from the strong pinning points. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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13 pages, 7072 KiB

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Improved Bending Strength and Thermal Conductivity of Diamond/Al Composites with Ti Coating Fabricated by Liquid–Solid Separation Method

by Hongyu Zhou, Qijin Jia, Jing Sun, Yaqiang Li, Yinsheng He, Wensi Bi and Wenyue Zheng

Materials 2024, 17(7), 1485; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17071485 - 25 Mar 2024

Viewed by 584

Abstract

In response to the rapid development of high-performance electronic devices, diamond/Al composites with high thermal conductivity (TC) have been considered as the latest generation of thermal management materials. This study involved the fabrication of diamond/Al composites reinforced with Ti-coated diamond particles using a liquid–solid separation (LSS) method. The interfacial characteristics of composites both without and with Ti coatings were evaluated using SEM, XRD, and EMPA. The results show that the LSS technology can fabricate diamond/Al composites without Al₄C₃, hence guaranteeing excellent mechanical and thermophysical properties. The higher TC of the diamond/Al composite with a Ti coating was attributed to the favorable metallurgical bonding interface compounds. Due to the non-wettability between diamond and Al, the TC of uncoated diamond particle-reinforced composites was only 149 W/m·K. The TC of Ti-coated composites increased by 85.9% to 277 W/m·K. A simultaneous comparison and analysis were performed on the features of composites reinforced by Ti and Cr coatings. The results suggest that the application of the Ti coating increases the bending strength of the composite, while the Cr coating enhances the TC of the composite. We calculate the theoretical TC of the diamond/Al composite by using the differential effective medium (DEM) and Maxwell prediction model and analyze the effect of Ti coating on the TC of the composite. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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15 pages, 13291 KiB

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Analyses and Research on a Model for Effective Thermal Conductivity of Laser-Clad Composite Materials

by Yuedan Li, Chaosen Lin, Bryan Gilbert Murengami, Cuiyong Tang and Xueyong Chen

Materials 2023, 16(23), 7360; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16237360 - 27 Nov 2023

Viewed by 758

Abstract

Composite materials prepared via laser cladding technology are widely used in die production and other fields. When a composite material is used for heat dissipation and heat transfer, thermal conductivity becomes an important parameter. However, obtaining effective thermal conductivity of composite materials prepared via laser cladding under different parameters requires a large number of samples and experiments. In order to improve the research efficiency of thermal conductivity of composite materials, a mathematical model of Cu/Ni composite materials was established to study the influence of cladding-layer parameters on the effective thermal conductivity of composite materials. The comparison between the model and the experiment shows that the model’s accuracy is 86.7%, and the error is due to the increase in thermal conductivity caused by the alloying of the joint, so the overall effective thermal conductivity deviation is small. This study provides a mathematical model method for studying the thermodynamic properties of laser cladding materials. It provides theoretical and practical guidance for subsequent research on the thermodynamic properties of materials during die production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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11 pages, 6374 KiB

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Maintaining Excellent Mechanical Properties via Additive Manufacturing of Low-N 25Cr-Type Duplex Stainless Steel

by Jianguo He, Jiesheng Lv, Zhigang Song, Changjun Wang, Han Feng, Xiaohan Wu, Yuliang Zhu and Wenjie Zheng

Materials 2023, 16(22), 7125; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16227125 - 10 Nov 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 814

Abstract

Duplex stainless steel (DSS) exhibits good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, and has attracted more and more attention within the fields of both science and technology. However, the increasing levels of N and of Cr, Mo, etc., as alloying elements in DSS increase production difficulty. In particular, the N element increases the risk of Cr₂N precipitation, which can seriously deteriorate the thermal plasticity of DSS, while increasing its strength. For this reason, a low-N-content 25Cr-type DSS was designed in order to adapt additive manufacturing processes. With regard to the nano-inclusions of oxide precipitation and effective grain refinement, and considering the benefits of selective laser melting fabrication, a low-N 25Cr-type duplex stainless steel with a 0.09 wt.% N content achieved high mechanical properties, with a yield strength of 712 MPa and an elongation of 27.5%, while the V-notch impact toughness was 160 J/cm². The microstructure evolution and the reasons behind the improvement in mechanical properties will be discussed in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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16 pages, 9845 KiB

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Printing, Debinding and Sintering of 15-5PH Stainless Steel Components by Fused Deposition Modeling Additive Manufacturing

by Gaoyuan Chang, Xiaoxun Zhang, Fang Ma, Cheng Zhang and Luyang Xu

Materials 2023, 16(19), 6372; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16196372 - 23 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1157

Abstract

Metal FDM technology overcomes the problems of high cost, high energy consumption and high material requirements of traditional metal additive manufacturing by combining FDM and powder metallurgy and realizes the low-cost manufacturing of complex metal parts. In this work, 15-5PH stainless steel granules with a powder content of 90% and suitable for metal FDM were developed. The flowability and formability of the feedstock were investigated and the parts were printed. A two-step (solvent and thermal) debinding process is used to remove the binder from the green part. After being kept at 75 °C in cyclohexane for 24 h, the solvent debinding rate reached 98.7%. Following thermal debinding, the material’s weight decreased by slightly more than 10%. Sintering was conducted at 1300 °C, 1375 °C and 1390 °C in a hydrogen atmosphere. The results show that the shrinkage of the sintered components in the X-Y-Z direction remains quite consistent, with values ranging from 13.26% to 19.58% between 1300 °C and 1390 °C. After sintering at 1390 °C, the material exhibited a relative density of 95.83%, a hardness of 101.63 HRBW and a remarkable tensile strength of 770 MPa. This work realizes the production of metal parts using 15-5PH granules’ extrusion additive manufacturing, providing a method for the low-cost preparation of metal parts. And it provides a useful reference for the debinding and sintering process settings of metal FDM. In addition, it also enriches the selection range of materials for metal FDM. Full article

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10 pages, 2180 KiB

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In Situ SEM, TEM, EBSD Characterization of Nucleation and Early Growth of Pure Fe/Pure Al Intermetallic Compounds

by Xiaojun Zhang, Kunyuan Gao, Zhen Wang, Xiuhua Hu, Jianzhu Wang and Zuoren Nie

Materials 2023, 16(17), 6022; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16176022 - 1 Sep 2023

Viewed by 814

Abstract

The nucleation and growth processes of pure Fe/pure Al intermetallic compounds (IMCs) during heat treatment at 380 °C and 520 °C were observed through in situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The size of the IMCs were statistically analyzed using image analysis software. The types and distribution of IMCs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD). The results showed that: at 380 °C, the primary phase of the Fe/Al composite intermetallic compounds was Fe₄Al₁₃, formed on the Fe side and habituated with Fe. The IMC was completely transformed from the initial Fe₄Al₁₃ to the most stable Fe₂Al₅, and the Fe₂Al₅ was the habitus with Fe during the process of holding at 380 °C for 15 min to 60 min. At 380 °C, the initial growth rate of the IMC was controlled by reaction, and the growth rate of the thickness and horizontal dimensions was basically the same as 0.02–0.17 μm/min. When the IMC layer thickness reached 4.5 μm, the growth rate of the thickness changed from reaction control to diffusion control and decreased to 0.007 μm/min. After heat treatment at 520 °C (≤20 min), the growth of IMC was still controlled by the reaction, the horizontal growth rate was 0.53 μm/min, the thickness growth rate was 0.23 μm/min, and the main phase of the IMC was the Fe₂Al₅ phase at 520 °C/20 min. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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15 pages, 4406 KiB

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Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Inconel 718 Tools for Cold Deep Drawing Applications: Optimization of Printing and Post-Processing Parameters

by Cho-Pei Jiang, Andi Ard Maidhah, Shun-Hsien Wang, Yuh-Ru Wang, Tim Pasang and Maziar Ramezani

Materials 2023, 16(13), 4707; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16134707 - 29 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1088

Abstract

Inconel 718 (IN 718) powder is used for a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printer, but the mechanical properties of the as-built object are not suited to cold deep drawing applications. This study uses the Taguchi method to design experimental groups to determine the effect of various factors on the mechanical properties of as-built objects produced using an LPBF printer. The optimal printing parameters are defined using the result for the factor response to produce an as-built object with the greatest ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and this is used to produce a specimen for post-processing, including heat treatment (HT) and surface finishing. The HT parameter value that gives the maximum UTS is the optimal HT parameter. The optimal printing and HT parameter values are used to manufacture a die and a punch to verify the suitability of the manufactured tool for deep drawing applications. The experimental results show that the greatest UTS is 1091.33 MPa. The optimal printing parameters include a laser power of 190 W, a scanning speed of 600 mm/s, a hatch space of 0.105 mm and a layer thickness of 40 μm, which give a UTS of 1122.88 MPa. The UTS for the post-processed specimen increases to 1511.9 MPa. The optimal parameter values for HT are heating to 720 °C and maintaining this temperature for 8 h, decreasing the temperature to 620 °C and maintaining this temperature for 8 h, and cooling to room temperature in the furnace. Surface finishing increases the hardness to HRC 55. Tools, including a punch and a die, are manufactured using these optimized parameter values. The deep drawing experiment demonstrates that the manufactured tools that are produced using these values form a round cup of Aluminum alloy 6061. The parameter values that are defined can be used to manufacture IN 718 tools with a UTS of more than 1500 MPa and a hardness of more than 50 HRC, so these tools are suited to cold deep drawing specifications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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15 pages, 6071 KiB

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Enhanced Hardness-Toughness Balance Induced by Adaptive Adjustment of the Matrix Microstructure in In Situ Composites

by Mingjuan Zhao, Xiang Jiang, Yumeng Guan, Haichao Yang, Longzhi Zhao, Dejia Liu, Haitao Jiao, Meng Yu, Yanchuan Tang and Laichang Zhang

Materials 2023, 16(12), 4437; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16124437 - 16 Jun 2023

Viewed by 767

Abstract

With the development of high-speed and heavy-haul railway transportation, the surface failure of rail turnouts has become increasingly severe due to insufficient high hardness-toughness combination. In this work, in situ bainite steel matrix composites with WC primary reinforcement were fabricated via direct laser deposition (DLD). With the increased primary reinforcement content, the adaptive adjustments of the matrix microstructure and in situ reinforcement were obtained at the same time. Furthermore, the dependence of the adaptive adjustment of the composite microstructure on the composites’ balance of hardness and impact toughness was evaluated. During DLD, the laser induces an interaction among the primary composite powders, which leads to obvious changes in the phase composition and morphology of the composites. With the increased WC primary reinforcement content, the dominant sheaves of the lath-like bainite and the few island-like retained austenite are changed into needle-like lower bainite and plenty of block-like retained austenite in the matrix, and the final reinforcement of Fe₃W₃C and WC is obtained. In addition, with the increased primary reinforcement content, the microhardness of the bainite steel matrix composites increases remarkably, but the impact toughness decreases. However, compared with conventional metal matrix composites, the in situ bainite steel matrix composites manufactured via DLD possess a much better hardness-toughness balance, which can be attributed to the adaptive adjustment of the matrix microstructure. This work provides a new insight into obtaining new materials with a good combination of hardness and toughness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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17 pages, 6206 KiB

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Effect of Porosity and Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties of Additive Manufactured CoCrMo Alloys

by Tu-Ngoc Lam, Kuang-Ming Chen, Cheng-Hao Tsai, Pei-I Tsai, Meng-Huang Wu, Ching-Chi Hsu, Jayant Jain and E-Wen Huang

Materials 2023, 16(2), 751; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16020751 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2466

Abstract

To minimize the stress shielding effect of metallic biomaterials in mimicking bone, the body-centered cubic (bcc) unit cell-based porous CoCrMo alloys with different, designed volume porosities of 20, 40, 60, and 80% were produced via a selective laser melting (SLM) process. A heat treatment process consisting of solution annealing and aging was applied to increase the volume fraction of an ε-hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure for better mechanical response and stability. In the present study, we investigated the impact of different, designed volume porosities on the compressive mechanical properties in as-built and heat-treated CoCrMo alloys. The elastic modulus and yield strength in both conditions were dramatically decreased with increasing designed volume porosity. The elastic modulus and yield strength of the CoCrMo alloys with a designed volume porosity of 80% exhibited the closest match to those of bone tissue. Different strengthening mechanisms were quantified to determine their contributing roles to the measured yield strength in both conditions. The experimental results of the relative elastic modulus and yield strength were compared to the analytical and simulation modeling analyses. The Gibson–Ashby theoretical model was established to predict the deformation behaviors of the lattice CoCrMo structures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Additive Manufacturing of Alloys and Composites)

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