Selective laser melting of CuCrZr alloy: processing optimisation, microstructure and mechanical properties

process parameters characteristics of CuCrZr alloy processed by selective laser melting (SLM) was systemati-cally investigated. The effect of laser power and scanning speed on the surface morphology of the samples with single track fabricated by SLM was investigated. Additionally, the bulk samples were produced to investigate the influence of the scanning strategy on the densification level. The coupled model of the effect of process parameters on relative density was established by response surface methodology (RSM) and experiment. The process parameters were optimized to obtain almost fully dense CuCrZr samples with a relative density close to 99.57%. The microstructural analysis demonstrated the presence of stable melt tracks without obvious porosity. The grain morphology and orientation are highly correlated with laser trajectory and construction direction. The samples present obvious cellular and columnar structures. The XRD results show that, apart from the diffraction peaks of a-Cu, the diffraction peaks of other phase components were not detected. Finally, the ultimate tensile strength of 338 MPa, yield strength of 216 Mpa and elongation of 42.4% were achieved for the SLMed CuCrZr parts.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The process parameters characteristics of CuCrZr alloy processed by selective laser melting (SLM) were systematically investigated. The laser power and scanning speed were found to have an effect on the surface morphology of the samples, while the scanning strategy influenced the densification level. By optimizing the process parameters, almost fully dense CuCrZr samples with stable melt tracks and no obvious porosity were obtained. The grain morphology and orientation were highly correlated with the laser trajectory and construction direction. XRD analysis showed the presence of diffraction peaks of α-Cu and no peaks of other phase components.