Alloy Development for Metal Additive Manufacturing

Currently, it is well established that the metal AM is most suitable for production of highly engineered parts with complex geometry, low volume, prototype, custom parts, and parts made from expensive materials. Design freedom that the AM processes offer has led to design and engineering of new, complex, light-weight structures in all applications. Majority of these parts are functional but non-critical or have large factor of safety because of the limitations in the microstructural and structural deficiencies inherent in metal AM. Similar to the design freedom, metal AM also provides material freedom that has not been sufficiently explored. In order to realize further and widespread use of metal AM for manufacturing critical components, it is necessary to explore the inherent material freedom in AM. Based on the currently available metal AM alloys, it is apparent that the knowledge of materials science and engineering principles can be further utilized for development of metal AM alloys with superior mechanical properties. This presentation will demonstrate the essence of fundamental metallurgical principles in realizing full scope of material freedom in metal additive manufacturing. High performance, particularly high strength, ductility, and fatigue resistant, aluminum alloy development will be showcased to demonstrate how fundamental MSE principles can be utilized to develop new materials for metal AM.