Aluminium Alloys for Additive Manufacturing: Alloy Development, Structures, Properties and Applications

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Additive Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 3891

Special Issue Editors

School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215131, China
Interests: additive manufacturing; physical metallurgy; mcirostructure; mechanical property

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Guest Editor
School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: additive manufacturing; metals and alloys; machine learning; medical device

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing offers the unique capability of improving the sustainability of metallic components production by reducing the need for tooling, machining and assembling. The application of aluminium alloys for additive manufacturing has further pushed the high-strength and lightweight limits of this field through innovative structure design and integrated fabrication. However, significant challenges in the areas of alloy processability, mechanical property and available alloys are still associated with this process, which needs to be addressed with further research efforts.

This Special Issue focus on the structures and properties of additively manufactured aluminum alloys. Research efforts in the field of novel alloy development, process optimization, structure, property and applications are all welcome.

Dr. Qingbo Jia
Dr. Xiaopeng Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • additive manufacturing
  • aluminium alloys
  • alloy development
  • micro- and macro-structures
  • properties
  • applications

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 14714 KiB  
Article
High-Throughput Printability Screening of AlMgSi Alloys for Powder Bed Fusion
by Freddy Leijon and Johan Moverare
Metals 2023, 13(6), 1114; https://doi.org/10.3390/met13061114 - 13 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1349
Abstract
The importance of both recycling and additive manufacturing (AM) is increasing; however, there has been a limited focus on the development of AM alloys that are compatible in terms of recyclability with the larger scrap loops of wrought 5xxx, 6xxx and cast 3xx [...] Read more.
The importance of both recycling and additive manufacturing (AM) is increasing; however, there has been a limited focus on the development of AM alloys that are compatible in terms of recyclability with the larger scrap loops of wrought 5xxx, 6xxx and cast 3xx aluminium alloys. In this work, the powder bed fusion (PBF) printability of AlMgSi alloys in the interval of 0–30 wt% Mg and 0–4 wt% Si is screened experimentally with a high-throughput method. This method produces PBF-mimicked material by PVD co-sputtering, followed by laser remelting. Strong evidence was found for AlMgSi alloys being printable within two different composition ranges: Si + Mg < 0.7 wt% or for Si + 2/3 Mg > 4 wt% when Mg < 3 wt% and Si > 3 wt%. Increasing the amount of Mg and Si influences the grain structure by introducing fine columnar grains at the melt pool boundary, although the melt pool interior was unaffected. Hardness in an as-built state increased with both Mg and Si, although Si had a neglectable effect at low levels of Mg. Both the evaporative loss of Mg and the amount of Mg in solid solution increased linearly with the amount of Mg. Full article
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13 pages, 4100 KiB  
Article
Process Optimization for Up-Facing Surface Finish of AlSi10Mg Alloy Produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion
by Chaofeng Gao, Huaping Tang, Shiheng Zhang, Zhibo Ma, Yunjie Bi and Jeremy-Heng Rao
Metals 2022, 12(12), 2053; https://doi.org/10.3390/met12122053 - 29 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2005
Abstract
This work investigates the effects of various processing parameters (laser power, scanning speed, hatch distance and beam offset) on the resultant inclined up-facing surface roughness of AlSi10Mg alloys produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). A two-step approach, orthogonal test followed by the [...] Read more.
This work investigates the effects of various processing parameters (laser power, scanning speed, hatch distance and beam offset) on the resultant inclined up-facing surface roughness of AlSi10Mg alloys produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). A two-step approach, orthogonal test followed by the Doehlert matrix design (DMD) test is used to efficiently optimize the up-facing surface and contour parameters. The former method aims to determine the significance of variables while the latter one facilitates a rapid optimization. The results show that the interaction and interdependency among the parameters are of great significance to the obtainable surface roughness. Using a rational design of experiments, the optimized up-facing surface roughness of Ra of 5.4 μm is achieved. This is attributed to the elimination of the laser partition track and the reduction in irregularities at the edges of the parts. This work demonstrates an effective approach of experimental processing parameter optimization to improve the surface finish of LPBF parts. Full article
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