Metal Additive Manufacturing Conference 2018

The work is devoted to the advanced 3D printing of “aluminum-10-20 wt. % alumina” composite with core-shell structure. The process of core-shell “aluminum-10-20 wt. % alumina” composite preparation was based on the aluminum powders selective oxidation in water and following drying at 120 °C and calcination of the obtained “aluminum-10-20 wt. % alumina” composite at 600 °C. The process of certain thickness of alumina layers covered Al particles was studied. The kinetic parameters of the aluminum particles oxidation process along with the alumina phase transformation were studied. It was found that gamma-alumina is the only product formed on particles with aluminum core after calcination at 600 °C. Even after the thermal treatment at 600 °C the synthesized “aluminum-alumina” composites contained up to 1 wt. % of volatiles (water and hydrogen) that requires a careful selection of the SLM regimes. Various regimes of SLM for 3 D samples production from the studied composites were tested to obtain the acceptable mechanical properties of the produced samples (HB at least 170 MPa) [1]. The density, strength and hardness of the obtained “aluminum-alumina” composites were tested and the certain SLM regimes were selected for the further study.