Additive manufacturing of high modulus steels: New possibilities for lightweight design

Abstract

This work demonstrates the feasibility of fabricating bulk nanostructured high modulus steels in-situ by additive manufacturing. This ideal match of novel processes and alloy concepts opens up new pathways for lightweight design by producing light, stiff, strong and ductile components with minimal geometric restraints. On the example of an Fe – Ti – B alloy, a conventional processing sequence of melting and casting pre-alloys, gas-atomisation and laser powder bed fusion (selective laser melting) led to finely dispersed metastable particle and matrix phases. A simple annealing step transformed them into the desired equilibrium constituents of ductile ferrite (matrix) and light and stiff TiB2 (particles), with only minimal changes in particle size (about 20–150 nm in diameter) and distribution (mainly on the matrix grain boundaries). This nano-scaled composite structure promises an extremely attractive property profile, i.e. an increased stiffness/ratio at elevated strength and without deteriorated ductility. However, the not yet optimized parameters of the laser fusion process led to the formation of few pores and cracks, which prevented the complete assessment of the property profile of the manufactured samples. Material and processing strategies for the further development of this promising lightweight design approach – including the suitability of other powder metallurgy processing routes – are outlined and discussed.