A metal–metal powder formulation approach for laser additive manufacturing of difficult-to-print high-strength aluminum alloys

•Developed a metal–metal powder formulation approach to laser additive manufacture high-strength aluminum alloys.•Created a novel Al6061/AlSi10Mg laser-printable powder blend.•Achieved a crack-free microstructure with high mechanical properties without heat treatment. It is well known that many high-strength aluminum alloys are difficult to process with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing because they are highly susceptible to solidification cracking. To address this issue, a metal–metal powder formulation approach was developed that allows for LPBF of previously difficult-to-print, high-performance Al alloys such as aluminum 6061 (Al6061). For the first time, a novel crack-free Al6061/AlSi10Mg alloy has been fabricated with this hybrid powder technique using relatively low laser power and no heat treatment. Compared to unmodified LPBF Al6061, the as-built hybrid Al50-50 microstructure (50 vol.% Al6061 + 50 vol.% AlSi10Mg) was crack free and overall porosity was reduced by 57%. In addition, Al50-50 exhibited significantly higher average elastic modulus, yield strength, ultimate strength, fracture strain, and hardness by about 148%, 288%, 469%, 943% and 55%, respectively. These results clearly indicate that metal–metal powder formulation is a promising method to create customized, laser-printable blends for difficult-to-process, high-performance aluminum alloys.