Wear behavior and microstructure of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys prepared by selective laser melting

Abstract

This work investigates the microstructure and wear behavior of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys, in-situ fabricated using selective laser melting of a mixture of eutectic Al-12Si (wt.%) and pure Si powders. The first observation was that the size and morphology of the Si phase are strongly influenced by the laser power. In addition, it was also observed that a high laser power causes serious evaporation of aluminum during the remelting process. Dry sliding wear test and Vickers microhardness measurements were employed to characterize the mechanical properties of the material. The lowest wear rate of about 7.0×10−4mm3N−1m−1 was observed for samples having the highest value of relative density (96%) and microhardness (105Hv0.3).