High Bending Strength Hypereutectic Al-22Si-0.2Fe-0.1Cu-Re Alloy Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting

The objective of the study is to investigate the corresponding microstructure and mechanical properties, especially bending strength, of the hypereutectic Al-Si alloy processed by selective laser melting (SLM). Almost dense Al-22Si-0.2Fe-0.1Cu-Re alloy is fabricated from a novel type of powder materials with optimized processing parameters. Phase analysis of such Al-22Si-0.2Fe-0.1Cu-Re alloy shows that the solubility of Si in Al matrix increases significantly. The fine microstructure can be observed, divided into three zones: fine zones, coarse zones, and heat-affected zones (HAZs). Fine zones are directly generated from the liquid phase with the characteristic of petaloid structures and bulk Al-Si eutectic. Due to the fine microstructure induced by the rapid cooling rate of SLM, the primary silicon presents a minimum average size of ~0.5 μm in fine zones, significantly smaller than that in the conventional produced hypereutectic samples. Moreover, the maximum value of Vickers hardness reaches ~170 HV0.2, and bending strength increases to 687.70 MPa for the as-built Al-22Si-0.2Fe-0.1Cu-Re alloys parts, which is much higher than that of cast counterparts. The formation mechanism of this fine microstructure and the enhancement reasons of bending strength are also discussed.