Design of new aluminum alloys for laser powder bed additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) of metal parts is at a juncture where multiple technologies have established their domain and a critical set of questions/issues have emerged. With any advanced manufacturing process, the cost of implementation has to be justified by gains in performance. Among the fusion AM technologies, laser based powder bed technologies (LBPBT) have become very popular because of the extraordinary design advantages. Topological optimization of a component based on the stress analysis can lead to significant weight saving. While design of complex shapes with intricate lattice structures and process optimization to accomplish such parts have advanced significantly, the location specific metallurgical process-microstructure-properties correlations have lagged behind. Ultimately, structural components are qualified based on properties and reliability. It is critical to link the probabilistic nature of the process with microstructural distribution that result in property variation. Another glaring gap is the availability of suitable alloys for high structural performance. For example, only a few aluminum alloys are available for LBPBT and this is true for most alloy categories. In this presentation, printability and mechanical behavior of new aluminum alloys designed for LBPBT will be presented.