Laser Powder Bed Fusion of a High Strength Al-Si-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy

Al-Si-Zn-Mg-Cu samples were produced using Laser Powder Bed Fusion from mixed AlSi10Mg and 7075 powders. It was observed that the introduction of silicon to an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy strongly reduced the crack density, probably because of the reduction of the solidification range, the improved fluidity of the molten phase and the reduction of the coefficient of thermal expansion. The density measurements showed that crack-free samples can be successfully produced with this powder mixture. The obtained Al-Si-Zn-Mg-Cu samples were characterized in terms of microstructure, hardness and tensile properties showing that this composition is very promising for future powder bed additive manufacturing processes.