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Anisotropy reduction of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg for metal mirrors

  • Metal Additive Manufacturing
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Abstract

In light of the rapid development of additive manufacturing technologies, this study explores the additive manufacturing of an AlSi10Mg mirror for potential application in aerospace engineering. An additively manufactured mirror consisting of AlSi10Mg must demonstrate high-dimensional stability to maintain its surface accuracy. This study investigates the origin of the anisotropy of AlSi10Mg, fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM), by analyzing its microstructure using metallographic microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The microstructure of AlSi10Mg fabricated by SLM is analyzed relative to the build and scan directions. In addition, the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure, inherent anisotropy, tensile strength, elongation, hardness, and thermal expansion of AlSi10Mg fabricated by SLM is studied. Heat treatment effectively reduces the inherent anisotropy of AlSi10Mg fabricated by SLM. Moreover, the surface accuracy of a heat-treated, additively manufactured mirror consisting of AlSi10Mg is stable, that is, minimally affected by thermal cycling. This study can inform further research on dimensionally stable, additively manufactured AlSi10Mg parts and the development of metal mirrors.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by The National Key Research and Development Program of China; this research was funded by Key laboratory of Airborne Optical Imaging and Measurement, grant number HCKF-201912HJ03. The authors are thankful for the support provided by the Key Laboratory of Airborne Optical Imaging and Measurement, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3888 Southeast Lake Road, Changchun, 130033, China

    Songnian Tan, Yefei Wang, Weiyi Liu, Hao Wang, Ping Jia & Yalin Ding

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yuquan Road, Beijing, 100049, China

    Songnian Tan & Yefei Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Airborne Optical Imaging and Measurement, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3888 Southeast Lake Road, Changchun, 130033, China

    Songnian Tan, Yefei Wang, Weiyi Liu, Hao Wang, Ping Jia & Yalin Ding

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  1. Songnian Tan
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  2. Yefei Wang
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Contributions

ST was involved in conceptualization, methodology, software, resources, data curation, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing, visualization; YD contributed to validation; ST and YW were involved in investigation; WL contributed to supervision; PJ was involved in project administration; HW, PJ and YD contributed to funding acquisition. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yalin Ding.

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Handling Editor: M. Grant Norton.

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Tan, S., Wang, Y., Liu, W. et al. Anisotropy reduction of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg for metal mirrors. J Mater Sci 57, 11934–11948 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07080-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07080-4

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