Selective laser melting additive manufacturing of TiC/AlSi10Mg bulk-form nanocomposites with tailored microstructures and properties

The nanoscale TiC particle reinforced AlSi10Mg nanocomposite parts were produced by selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing process. The influence of laser energy density (LED) on densification behavior, microstructural evolution, microhardness and wear properties of SLM-processed TiC/AlSi10Mg nanocomposites was studied. It showed that the near fully dense nanocomposite parts (>98% theoretical density) were achieved with increasing the applied LED. The TiC reinforcement in SLM-processed parts experienced a microstructural change from the standard nanoscale particle morphology (the average size 77-93 nm) to the relatively coarsened submicron structure (the mean particle size 154 nm) as the LED increased. The sufficiently high densification rate combined with the homogeneous distribution of nanoscale TiC reinforcement throughout the matrix led to a high microhardness of 181.2 HV0.2, a considerably low coefficient of friction (COF) of 0.36, and a reduced wear rate of 2.94 × 10-5 mm3N-1m-1 for SLM-processed TiC/AlSi10Mg nanocomposite parts.