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Feasibility and Reliability of Laser Powder Bed Fused AlSi10Mg/Wrought AA6061 Hybrid Aluminium Alloy Component

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Abstract

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) provides an effective and economical solution for fabricating multi-material components of complex structures as it entails a layer-wise manufacturing process. The feasibility and reliability of depositing AlSi10Mg alloy on the wrought AA6061 alloy substrate using the LPBF process were studied. The study includes the analysis of metallurgical quality, microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, and corrosion behaviour of the multi-material parts before and after heat treatment. The interface region, decorated with epitaxial growth, shows excellent metallurgical bonding without apparent defects of pores and cracks. LPBF AlSi10Mg comprises fine equiaxed grains and coarse columnar grains on the boundary and inside the molten pool, respectively. They were replaced by large Si particles after heat treatment without altering the grain morphology and <100>//BD (building direction) texture. The as-built multi-material part exhibits a low ultimate tensile strength of 192.8 ± 3.4 MPa, similar to that of wrought AA6061, and a higher elongation (13.6 ± 0.5%) than the LPBF AlSi10Mg alloy (9.4 ± 0.2%). In addition, the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the multi-material part were slightly improved after heat treatment. Compression testing showed that, in contrast to single-alloy parts, the multi-material part achieved moderate strength and good compressive capacity under both as-built and heat-treated conditions. Interestingly, the galvanic corrosion effects in the interface region are suppressed for both as-built and heat-treated multi-material parts. Moreover, the as-built multi-material sample has a higher corrosion resistance than the heat-treated one. This study verifies the feasibility of efficiently manufacturing a reliable, excellent, and low-cost multi-material component combining conventional and additive manufacturing processes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Academic Research Fund (Grant no. MOE-T2EP50120-0010), and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (Grant no. A19E1a0097).

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 117575, Singapore

    Cuiling Zhao, Yuchao Bai & Hao Wang

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Zhao, C., Bai, Y. & Wang, H. Feasibility and Reliability of Laser Powder Bed Fused AlSi10Mg/Wrought AA6061 Hybrid Aluminium Alloy Component. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 10, 959–977 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-022-00456-6

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