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.