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Aluminum-based nanocomposites with hybrid reinforcements prepared by mechanical alloying and selective laser melting consolidation

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Abstract

In this study, Aluminum-based nanocomposites with hybrid reinforcements were successfully prepared by mechanical alloying, followed by consolidation using selective laser melting (SLM). The evolution of particle morphology and microstructural features of the milled powders at various milling times was studied. The results indicated that the milled powder particles experienced a coarsening stage at the early 5 h milling and followed by a continuous refinement during 5–20 h milling. After 20 h of milling, the original coarse needle-like Al3.21Si0.47 evolved into nanometer/submicrometer-sized spherical Al3.21Si0.47. Meanwhile, both fine Al3.21Si0.47 and ex-situ nanoscale TiN particles distributed uniformly within the Al matrix. By SLM processing of the 20-h powder, a near fully dense part with a uniform microstructure consisting of circularly dispersed and submicrometer-sized reinforcement particles embedded in α-Al matrix was obtained. The Vickers hardness and coefficient of friction of the SLM-processed part reached 178 HV0.1 and 0.38, respectively.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51322509), the Outstanding Youth Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (No. BK20130035), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-13-0854), the Science and Technology Support Program (The Industrial Part), Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology of China (No. BE2014009-2), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. NE2013103 and NP2015206).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210016, People’s Republic of China

    Chenglong Ma, Dongdong Gu, Donghua Dai, Wenhua Chen, Fei Chang, Pengpeng Yuan & Yifu Shen

  2. Institute of Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210016, People’s Republic of China

    Chenglong Ma, Dongdong Gu, Donghua Dai, Wenhua Chen, Fei Chang, Pengpeng Yuan & Yifu Shen

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  1. Chenglong Ma
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  2. Dongdong Gu
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  3. Donghua Dai
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  4. Wenhua Chen
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Correspondence to Dongdong Gu.

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Ma, C., Gu, D., Dai, D. et al. Aluminum-based nanocomposites with hybrid reinforcements prepared by mechanical alloying and selective laser melting consolidation. Journal of Materials Research 30, 2816–2828 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.267

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