Selective laser melting of a novel high-strength Er- and Zr-modified Al-Mn-Mg alloy

Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM) was used to fabricate a novel Er- and Zr-modified Al-Mn-Mg alloy. The alloy exhibited good processability. The microstructure of the alloy after SLM mainly contained columnar grains with a small number of equiaxed grains at melt pool boundaries. The tensile yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of the alloy reached 327 ± 5 MPa and 502 ± 3 MPa, respectively, with an elongation of 12.2 ± 1%. This study provides a new method for the fabrication of high-performance aluminum allows using low-cost raw materials via SLM.