Laser metal deposition for additive manufacturing of AA5024 and nanoparticulate TiC modified AA5024 alloy composites prepared with balling milling process

Aluminum-magnesium (Al-Mg) alloys containing scandium (Sc) are high-performance lightweight materials.There is still limited research about the additive manufacturing of the materials with the powder-feeding-basedlaser metal deposition (LMD). This study aims to develop the processing of AA5024 (an Al-Mg alloy containingSc) with LMD. On this basis, TiC nano-particles are added to the AA5024 powder, in order to seek an approach toreduce the need for Sc for enhancing or adjust the performance of AA5024. Both the pure AA5024 powder andthe modified powder are used to build solid parts. Powder analyses are performed to identify the proper powderprepraration window of the ball milling. Mechanical tests, porosity analysis and microstructural analysis areconducted to evaluate the performance of the solid parts. Within the scope of this work, an average tensilestrength of 347 MPa and an average yield strength of 296 MPa have been reached in specimens made of AA5024,after the specimens have been aged at 300 °C for 5 h. TiC additives are not able to strengthen and hardenAA5024, but the TiC additions have shown a potent effect on homogenizing the microstructure.