Alloy design for laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing:a critical review

Metal additive manufacturing(AM)has been extensively studied in recent decades.Despite the significant progress achieved in manufacturing complex shapes and structures,challenges such as severe cracking when using existing alloys for laser powder bed fusion(L-PBF)AM have persisted.These challenges arise because commercial alloys are primarily designed for conventional casting or forging processes,overlooking the fast cooling rates,steep temperature gradients and multiple thermal cycles of L-PBF.To address this,there is an urgent need to develop novel alloys specifically tailored for L-PBF technologies.This review provides a comprehensive summary of the strategies employed in alloy design for L-PBF.It aims to guide future research on designing novel alloys dedicated to L-PBF instead of adapting existing alloys.The review begins by discussing the features of the L-PBF processes,focusing on rapid solidification and intrinsic heat treatment.Next,the printability of the four main existing alloys(Fe-,Ni-,Al-and Ti-based alloys)is critically assessed,with a comparison of their conventional weldability.It was found that the weldability criteria are not always applicable in estimating printability.Furthermore,the review presents recent advances in alloy development and associated strategies,categorizing them into crack mitigation-oriented,microstructure manipulation-oriented and machine learning-assisted approaches.Lastly,an outlook and suggestions are given to highlight the issues that need to be addressed in future work.

Size effect on the microstructure, phase transformation behavior, and mechanical properties of NiTi shape memory alloys fabricated by laser powder bed fusion

In this work,NiTi samples with different thicknesses(0.15-1.00 mm)were fabricated by laser powder bed fusion(LPBF)under variable scanning speeds(500-1200 mm s^(-1)).The densification behavior,phase transformation behavior,and mechanical properties of the sample with different thicknesses are studied.The results indicate a strong size effect in the LPBF-fabricated NiTi alloy.The decrease of the sample thickness results in(i)the increase of porosity,(ii)the decrease of the number of adhered NiTi powder particles at the surface,(iii)the monotonous decrease of the martensitic transformation temperatures(MTTs),and(iv)the decrease of the shape recovery temperature.The influence of sample thickness on the melt-pool behavior,and thus the microstructure and performance of NiTi alloys are discussed.It is suggested that the melt-pool is deeper and narrower in the thin samples than in the thick samples.We conclude that,apart from the LPBF process conditions,the sample dimensions have also to be considered to fabricate NiTi structures with predictable properties.