Mechanical properties of Sn63Pb37 components by fused coating technology

The fused coating process is a new material jetting additive manufacturing technology that proposes to solve the problem of high cost, low efficiency and high material requirements of laser-based process and electron beam process. The structure and operating principles of the fused coating machine are explained in this paper. Sn63Pb37 is taken as the experimental material because of its low melting temperature, small surface tension coefficient and high viscosity. Tensile test specimens were made both parallel and perpendicular to the forming trajectory. Tensile strengths were measured and the corresponding fractographies were observed. It is found that large plastic deformation has occurred before the fracture, and the plasticity of fused components that the tensile direction parallel to the forming trajectory, is higher. The densification degree of fused coating component is measured by the drainage method. The average value is up to 99.78% which indicates that the internal structure is indistinguishable from extruded Sn63Pb37. The Vickers hardness of the fused coated component and raw casted material were tested by 5 points respectively, the results showed that the average Vickers hardness of the fused coating component is 14.6% higher than the casted one.