Additive Manufacturing of High-Entropy Alloys by Laser Processing

This contribution concentrates on the possibilities of additive manufacturing of high-entropy clad layers by laser processing. In particular, the effects of the laser surface processing parameters on the microstructure and hardness of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) were examined. AlCoCrFeNi alloys with different amounts of aluminum prepared by arc melting were investigated and compared with the laser beam remelted HEAs with the same composition. Attempts to form HEAs coatings with a direct laser deposition from the mixture of elemental powders were made for AlCoCrFeNi and AlCrFeNiTa composition. A strong influence of solidification rate on the amounts of face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic phase, their chemical composition, and spatial distribution was detected for two-phase AlCoCrFeNi HEAs. It is concluded that a high-power laser is a versatile tool to synthesize interesting HEAs with additive manufacturing processing. Critical issues are related to the rate of (re)solidification, the dilution with the substrate, powder efficiency during cladding, and differences in melting points of clad powders making additive manufacturing processing from a simple mixture of elemental powders a challenging approach.