Aluminum parts fabricated by laser-foil-printing additive manufacturing: Processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties

Fabrication of dense aluminum (Al-1100) parts (>99.3% of relative density) by our recently developed laser-foil-printing (LFP) additive manufacturing method was investigated as described in this paper. This was achieved by using a laser energy density of 7.0 MW/cm² to stabilize the melt pool formation and create sufficient penetration depth with 300 μm thickness foil. The highest yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) in the LFP-fabricated samples reached 111 ± 8 MPa and 128 ± 3 MPa, respectively, along the laser scanning direction. These samples exhibited greater tensile strength but less ductility compared to annealed Al-1100 samples. Fractographic analysis showed elongated gas pores in the tensile test samples. Strong crystallographic texturing along the solidification direction and dense subgrain boundaries in the LFP-fabricated samples were observed by using the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technique.