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Laser metal deposition additive manufacturing of TiC/Inconel 625 nanocomposites: Relation of densification, microstructures and performance

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Abstract

Laser metal deposition (LMD) additive manufacturing was used to deposit Inconel 625 matrix composites reinforced with nano-TiC particles. The effects of laser energy input per unit length (E) on the densification level, microstructural features, mircohardness, and wear property were investigated. The relatively low E induced insufficient liquid with higher viscosity, thus inhibiting the melted liquid from spreading out smoothly. As a result, a large number of micropores and reduced densification level of LMD-processed parts were obtained. When the E of 100 kJ/m was properly settled, the obtainable densification level generally approached 98.8%. The TiC reinforcements experienced successive microstructural changes from agglomeration to uniform distribution with coarsening grain, as the applied E increased. The nearly fully dense parts using optimal experimental parameters achieved an increased average microhardness of 330 HV0.2, resultant considerably low coefficient of friction of 0.41 and reduced wear rate of 5.4 × 10−4 mm3/(N m) in dry sliding wear tests.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51322509 and 51575267), 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), the 333 Project (No. BRA2015368), Science and Technology Foundation for Selected Overseas Chinese Scholar, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, the Program for Distinguished Talents of Six Domains in Jiangsu Province of China (No. 2013-XCL-028), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. NE2013103 and NP2015206), the Funding of Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education (No. SJLX15_0126), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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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

    Sainan Cao & Dongdong Gu

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

    Sainan Cao & Dongdong Gu

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  1. Sainan Cao
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Correspondence to Dongdong Gu.

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Cao, S., Gu, D. Laser metal deposition additive manufacturing of TiC/Inconel 625 nanocomposites: Relation of densification, microstructures and performance. Journal of Materials Research 30, 3616–3628 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.358

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