In-situ Alloying of Al-Cu via LPBF: Effect of heat treatment

Nowadays, the use of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) method, which is one of the novel production techniques, has received widespread attention. One of the significant issues using this process is the need to use pre-alloyed powders with specific properties. Using in-situ alloying enables processing of alloys beyond those commercially available. Therefore, development of methods such as in-situ alloying is necessary. In this study a mixture of aluminum and copper powder was used to prepare samples of in-situ Al-۵Cu alloy through LPBF. After achieving optimum process parameters for producing dense alloy samples, considering that this alloy is heat treatable, a series of heat treatments were performed at similar temperatures to evaluate the effect of annealing as well as aging time on mechanical properties. According to the results, with increasing the aging time, micro-hardness increased. On the other hand, as the solution time decreased a micro-hardness lower than the as built samples was achieved. Finally, the results showed a promising prospect of achieving improved mechanical properties in this alloy compared to pure aluminum and similar alloys. These results are highly significant considering the use of Al-Cu alloys in the production of internal combustion engine components for automobiles, and they highlight a promising outlook for the application of parts produced through this method in the automotive industry

کلیدواژه ها:

Laser Powder Bed Fusion ، In-situ Alloying ، Heat Treatment ، Mechanical Properties