Direct metal deposition of TiB₂/AlSi10Mg composites using satellited powders

Deployment of Al components produced by Additive Manufacturing (AM) is inhibited by the low strength of the casting Al alloys currently being repurposed for use with this process. As a result, the use of AM to produce Al matrix Composites (AMCs) which have superior properties to their castable counterparts is an emerging area of research. In this paper, micro TiB₂ particles were decorated to the surface of larger AlSi10Mg powder particles to create feedstocks through the ‘satelliting’ method. TiB₂/AlSi10Mg composites were then successfully fabricated by Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) with a uniform distribution of the reinforcing TiB₂ particles observed. Results show that macro agglomerations of TiB₂ particles decrease significantly with decreasing traverse speed and TiB₂ content. Porosity is also shown to decrease markedly with increasing traverse speed for this material feedstock. The hardness of deposits is shown to increase with addition of TiB₂ content, which implies improvement of material strength.