Microstructure development, tribological property and underlying mechanism of laser additive manufactured submicro-TiB2 reinforced Al-based composites

Abstract Al-based composites reinforced with submicro-TiB2 particles were manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) of powder mixture under different laser powers. The microstructure evolution and tribological property of SLM-processed AlSi10Mg/TiB2 composites were investigated. Al-based composites with high manufacturing quality and uniform dispersion of TiB2 particles throughout the matrix were obtained. The EBSD results showed that incorporation of TiB2 reinforcements imposed no appreciable influence on the crystallographic orientation and average grain size, while the grain size distribution was distinctly narrowed as a result of limitation on grain growth by addition of ceramic particles. The SLM-processed composites exhibited a continuous tendency of increasing microhardness and decreasing coefficient of friction (COF) along with wear rate with a laser power increasing from 350 to 450 W. The composites showed high microhardness of 126 HV0.2, exceeding over those of the Al–Si alloys and composites processing by conventional techniques. A low COF of 0.65 and wear rate of 5.2 × 10−4 mm3N−1m−1 were obtained for bulk-form composites at 450 W due to the combined effects of high manufacturing quality, microstructure homogeneity, and sound interfacial bonding.