Aluminum-Iron Alloys for Advanced 3D Printing

XIAMEN, China - April 24, 2022 - PRLog -- 3D printing (3D printing), also known as additive manufacturing (Adding Manufacture or Additive Manufacturing, AM), is a cutting-edge and emerging rapid prototyping manufacturing technology, which has received extensive attention from all walks of life and domestic and foreign media. It is a technology that builds various objects by printing layer by layer using adhesive materials such as metal powder or plastic. The 3D printer was introduced in the mid-1990s. It is a rapid prototyping device using technologies such as light curing and paper lamination. The working principle is roughly the same as that of a conventional printer. The machine is filled with "printing materials" such as liquid or powder. , through its control, the "printing materials" are superimposed layer by layer, turning the blueprints on the computer into real objects and machines.

In addition to plastic and ceramic particles, metal powders such as aluminum, titanium, stainless steel and superalloy powders are also commonly used for 3D printing materials. In the 3D printing process, 3D printing powders with complex geometric shapes and structures are produced by conventional gas atomization. The small droplets are rapidly cooled during the atomization process to form fine grains. 30μm. At present, there are not many aluminum alloys suitable for selective laser melting (SLM) printing. Only a few alloy atomized powders are not suitable for this kind of printing, so that products without small holes and hot cracks can be printed by SLM method. The most common is AISi10Mg alloy, but it is not an aluminum alloy developed for 3D printing. It is a near-eutectic conventional alloy. Because it contains a lot of eutectic, there are no small holes and thermal cracks in the printed product. , It can be seen that the development of aluminum alloys suitable for SLM process 3D printing is a top priority.

In recent years, a number of new aluminum alloys suitable for 3D printing have been successfully developed. They will not form porosity in the product and will not form thermal cracks. There are two strategic measures for the development of aluminum alloys for 3D printing: one is to ensure that sufficient melt flows into the gap between the grains when the droplets solidify at a high speed; the other is that the formed grains should be small. Make sure the alloy has enough eutectic. Fine-grained products have both high strength and good plasticity, while improving the fluidity of the melt without the formation of porosity and hot cracks.
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