Abstract
The research focuses on alloy design, powder production, and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of copper alloys. Copper and its alloys play a fundamental role for modern industrial applications due to their excellent thermal and electric conductivity in conjunction with considerable mechanical strength, for example, as welding electrodes and nozzles. By precipitation hardening, the hardness of low-alloyed copper, like CuCr1Zr, can be increased significantly. A combination of the geometry freedom of additive manufacturing with a tailor-made alloy design during powder production offers the opportunity to develop new alloy systems with a focus on the respective application. Experimental results regarding gas atomization, LPBF, property investigations, and property optimization of CuCr1Zr are presented. Powder particles and LPBF parts were analyzed with respect to phase and precipitate formation and compared to benchmark experiments of conventionally cast copper alloys. The microstructure differs significantly. Furthermore, the relative density of the LPBF parts reaches a value of 99.8%.
Highlights
Due to their outstanding thermal and electric conductivity [1] in combination with wide-range alloying abilities, copper and its alloys are highly significant in the development of new electronic and heat-exchanging units, e.g., in electro mobility and novel power generation and distribution units
Direct energy deposition (DED) as laser metal deposition (LMD) with metal powders or wires may be used for the generation of 3D structures, repair of degraded components [9, 10] and application of functional graded alloy systems [11, 12]
It becomes obvious that the chemical compositions of all analyzed samples lie within the nominal range of CuCr1Zr according to the requirements for the alloy 2.1293/CW106C [3]
Summary
Due to their outstanding thermal and electric conductivity [1] in combination with wide-range alloying abilities, copper and its alloys are highly significant in the development of new electronic and heat-exchanging units, e.g., in electro mobility and novel power generation and distribution units. Examples are the systems CuCrZr and CuNiSiCr, where Cr, Ni2Si, Cu4Zr, and Cr2Zr strengthening phases are formed [2,3,4,5] A large temperature gradient is occurring, originating from the repetitive rapid heat and solidification during the distinct micro-welding processes of each layer [13, 14]. This gradient influences significantly the microstructure of the LPBF-built parts and may result in defects like cracking [15] or part distortion [16]
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