Boron carbide (B₄C) is highly significant in the production of lightweight protective materials when added to aluminum owing to its exceptional mechanical properties. In this study, a method for fabricating Al-B₄C composites using high-energy ball milling and directed energy deposition (DED) is presented. Al-4 wt.% B₄C composites were fabricated under 21 different laser conditions to analyze the microstructure and mechanical properties at different values of laser power and scan speeds. The composites fabricated at a laser power of 600 W and the same scan speed exhibited the highest hardness and generated the fewest pores. In contrast, the composites fabricated at a laser power of 1000 W exhibited the lowest hardness and generated a significant number of large pores. This can be explained by the influence of the microstructure on the energy density at different values of laser power.

In this study, two types of SKD61 tool-steel samples are built by a selective laser melting (SLM) process using the different laser scan speeds. The characteristics of two kinds of SKD61 tool-steel powders used in the SLM process are evaluated. Commercial SKD61 tool-steel power has a flowability of 16.68 sec/50 g and its Hausner ratio is calculated to be 1.25 by apparent and tapped density. Also, the fabricated SKD61 tool steel powder fabricated by a gas atomization process has a flowability of 21.3 sec/50 g and its Hausner ratio is calculated to be 1.18. Therefore, we confirmed that the two powders used in this study have excellent flowability. Samples are fabricated to measure mechanical properties. The highest densities of the SKD61 tool-steel samples, fabricated under the same conditions, are 7.734 g/cm³ (using commercial SKD61 powder) and 7.652 g/cm³ (using fabricated SKD61 powder), measured with Archimedes method. Hardness is measured by Rockwell hardness testing equipment 5 times and the highest hardnesses of the samples are 54.56 HRC (commercial powder) and 52.62 HRC (fabricated powder). Also, the measured tensile strengths are approximately 1,721 MPa (commercial SKD61 powder) and 1,552 MPa (fabricated SKD61 powder), respectively.

Citations

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• Microstructural effects on the tensile and fracture behavior of selective laser melted H13 tool steel under varying conditions
  Jungsub Lee, Jungho Choe, Junhyeok Park, Ji-Hun Yu, Sangshik Kim, Im Doo Jung, Hyokyung Sung
  Materials Characterization.2019; 155: 109817.     CrossRef

Medical technologies are gaining in importance because of scientific and technical progress in medicine and the increasing average lifetime of people. This has opened up a huge market for medical devices, where complex-shaped metallic parts made from biocompatible materials are in great demand. Today many of these components are already being manufactured by powder metallurgy technologies. This includes mass production of standard products and also customized components. In this paper some aspects related to metal injection molding of Ti and its alloys as well as modifications of microstructure and surface finish were discussed. The process chain of additive manufacturing (AM) was described and the current state of the art of AM processes like Selective Laser Melting and electron beam melting for medical applications was presented.

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Citations to this article as recorded by  

• Spontaneous Formation of Titanium Nitride on the Surface of a Ti Rod Induced by Electro-Discharge-Heat-Treatment in an N2 Atmosphere
  W.H. Lee, Y.H. Yoon, Y.H. Kim, Y.K. Lee, J.Y. Kim, S.Y. Chang
  Archives of Metallurgy and Materials.2017; 62(2): 1281.     CrossRef