Abstract
The laser-based powder bed fusion (LBPF) process or commonly known as selective laser melting (SLM) has made significant progress since its inception. Initially, conventional materials like 316L, Ti6Al4V, and IN-718 were fabricated using the SLM process. However, it was inevitable to explore the possible fabrication of the second most popular structural material after Fe-based alloys/steel, the Al-based alloys by SLM. Al-based alloys exhibit some inherent difficulties due to the following factors: the presence of surface oxide layer, solidification cracking during melt cooling, high reflectivity from the surface, high thermal conductivity of the metal, poor flowability of the powder, low melting temperature, etc. Researchers have overcome these difficulties to successfully fabricate the different Al-based alloys by SLM. However, there exists no review dealing with the fabrication of different Al-based alloys by SLM, their fabrication issues, microstructure, and their correlation with properties in detail. Hence, the present review attempts to introduce the SLM process followed by a detailed discussion about the processing parameters that form the core of the alloy development process. This is followed by the current research status on the processing of Al-based alloys and microstructure evaluation (including defects, internal stresses, etc.), which are dealt with on the basis of individual Al-based series. The mechanical properties of these alloys are discussed in detail followed by the other important properties like tribological properties, fatigue properties, etc. Lastly, an outlook is given at the end of this review.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the modern manufacturing processes where a 3D component is fabricated by progressively stacking and solidifying several 2D layers based on a digital model [1,2]
The selective laser melting (SLM) process has already made a considerable impact in the manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, pharmaceutical, electronics, and sports sectors [31,32] because of its ability to produce a wide variety of materials without any theoretical restrictions [33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50]
Even though the SLM process has several merits to be considered as the technology for the future, there are certain drawbacks such as poor surface quality, occasional high production time, dimensional accuracy and material properties
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the modern manufacturing processes where a 3D component is fabricated by progressively stacking and solidifying several 2D layers based on a digital model (metal incremental manufacturing) [1,2] This is in contrast to the conventional manufacturing methods of removing an unwanted volume of the material from the bulk, namely an ingot/billet/bloom, to form a useful industrial component. The next-generation AM processes were commercialized in 1992, when both selective laser sintering (SLS) from 3D systems and solid form stereolithography system from Teijin Seiki were unveiled [26]. SLM uses a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) data as a digital source of information and energy in the form of a high-powered laser beam to create 3D metal parts by fusion of metallic powder particles [28]. The SLM process has already made a considerable impact in the manufacturing, automobile, aerospace, pharmaceutical, electronics, and sports sectors [31,32] because of its ability to produce a wide variety of materials (metals, alloys, cermets, composites) without any theoretical restrictions [33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50]
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