EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Magnesium alloys are of interest for space applications. Their low density would be beneficial to substitute aluminium in many aerospace structure applications, depending on the exact stiffness and load-bearing requirements. However, magnesium alloys are more challenging to process than aluminium. Advanced manufacturing technologies are required to allow broadening the range of applications using the appealing properties of magnesium.
Plasma Metal Deposition (PMD) is an additive manufacturing technique that belongs to the Direct Energy Deposition group, using a plasma as energy source for melting materials in powder or wire shape with high deposition rates.
The application of PMD manufactured Mg-alloys components in space hardware is beneficial as allows implementing integral designs, complex and large structures.
In this study, the processing of experimental AZ91 wires into a near net shape component using the additive manufactured technique PMD is developed with the aim of producing a complex technological demonstrator. This demonstrator will then be tested to assess its compliance with the requirements of the intended application.
Thin-wall structures are fabricated, tensile test samples and test coupons are extracted to evaluate mechanical properties, microstructure and phase formation of the as deposited and heat-treated material. Furthermore, to be qualified for space applications the corrosion behaviour of the processed AZ91 material is studied.