Effect of post-heat treatment on the wear properties of AlSi10Mg alloy manufactured by selective laser melting

Abstract

Microstructure and wear property of AlSi10Mg alloy manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) were investigated. Also, the effect of post heat treatment on the mechanical and wear properties was examined. Two kinds of heat treatments (direct aging (DA) and T6) were separately conducted to SLM AlSi10Mg alloy. As-built alloy had a cellular structure formed inside the molten pool. Eutectic Si was also observed at the cellular boundary in as-built alloy. After DA heat treatment, the cellular structure still remained, and a large amount of nano-size Si particles were newly formed inside the cell structure. Both molten pool and cellular structure disappeared, and the size of Si increased in T6 alloy. The values of Vickers hardness measured as 139.4 HV (DA alloy), 128.0 HV (As-built alloy) and 85.1 HV (T6 alloy), respectively. However, concerning to wear property, T6 alloy showed better wear resistance than other alloys. The correlation between microstructure and wear mechanism of SLM AlSi10Mg alloy was also discussed.