Metal powders in laser-powder-bed-fusion (L-PBF) often exhibit cohesive flow resulting from interparticle adhesion. Nanoparticle dry-coating can improve powder flowability and promote powder layer densification. A Co25Cr25Fe25Ni25 metal powder (20–90 µm) is dry-coated with TiN particles with a diameter of 16 nm at low concentrations of up to 69 ppm. The dynamic angle of repose decreased and bulk powder density increased compared to the uncoated state from 49 ° and 4.67 g/cm3 to 29 ° and 4.81 g/cm3 with dry-coating of TiN, respectively. UV/Vis spectroscopy showed negligible alterations by TiN additions on the powder light absorption. The powder modifications strongly affected their corresponding processability in L-PBF and reduced the melt pool signatures of the in situ detected confocal single-color pyrometer signal as well as ex situ measured melt pool depth and width. With increasing flowability, a significant decrease in thermal emission and melt pool size was observed. The results demonstrate the impact of powder flowability and bulk powder density on the quality of L-PBF parts when particle interactions are actively modified.

Laser additively manufactured duplex stainless steels contain mostly ferrite in the as-built parts due to rapid solidification of the printed layers. To achieve duplex microstructures (ferrite and austenite in roughly equal proportions) and, thus, a good combination of mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, an austenitic stainless steel powder (X2CrNiMo17-12-2) and a super duplex stainless steel powder (X2CrNiMoN25-7-4) were mixed in different proportions and the powder mixtures were processed via PBF-LB/M (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) under various processing conditions by varying the laser power and the laser scanning speed. The optimal process parameters for dense as-built parts were determined by means of light optical microscopy and density measurements. The austenitic and ferritic phase formation of the mixed alloys was significantly influenced by the chemical composition adjusted by powder mixing and the laser energy input during PBF-LB/M. The austenite content increases, on the one hand, with an increasing proportion of X2CrNiMo17-12-2 in the powder mixtures and on the other hand with increasing laser energy input. The latter phenomenon could be attributed to a slower solidification and a higher melt pool homogeneity with increasing energy input influencing the phase formation during solidification and cooling. The desired duplex microstructures could be achieved by mixing the X2CrNiMo17-12-2 powder and the X2CrNiMoN25-7-4 powder at a specific mixing ratio and building with the optimal PBF-LB/M parameters.

Additive manufacturing processes, such as laser powder bed fusion, require steady powder processing but often exhibit poor flowability and low powder bed densities. Reducing the attractive Van-der-Waals force through nanoparticle coating can enhance initially poor flowability. We investigated the effect of dry-coating nanosized SiO2 on gas-atomized CoCrFeNi powders containing different amounts of particles < 20 μm with respect to nanoparticle concentration and mixing time. The dynamic angle of repose of a 0–90 μm powder reduced 50% and bulk powder density increased 30% with nanoparticle concentrations up to 0.153 wt.-%. The granular Bond-number was correlated with the powder flowability and porosity. The effect of mixing time was investigated with mixing two fractions 20–90 μm and 0–90 μm at a constant nominal nanoparticle surface area coverage of 128% for 2 to 1440 min. Short mixing times improved the flowability, while extensive mixing resulted in nanoparticle reagglomeration and deteriorated flow.

We report the synthesis of a bulk nanostructured alloy using laser-powder bed fusion. The equiatomic AlCoCrFeMnNi chemically complex alloy forms a nanoscale modulated structure, which is homogeneously distributed in the as-built condition. The nanostructure consists of Al & Ni-rich ordered and Cr & Fe-rich disordered BCC phases. The two phases form an interconnected phase network with coherent interface boundaries. Atom probe tomography and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy analysis of the spatial distribution of the modulated structure suggests the occurrence of nano-scale spinodal decomposition. These results introduce a direct synthesis of bulk nanostructured alloys with promising geometric flexibility.

In recent years, magnetocaloric materials have been extensively studied as materials for use in alternative cooling systems. Shaping the magnetocaloric material to thin-walled heat exchanger structures is an important step to achieve efficient magnetocaloric cooling systems. In the present work, experimental investigations were carried out on the heat treatment of LaFe11.4Si1.2Co0.4 alloy processed by Laser Beam Melting (LBM) technology. Due to the rapid solidification after melting, LBM results in a refined micro structure, which requires much shorter heat treatment to achieve a high percentage of magnetocaloric 1:13 phase compared to conventional cast material. The influence of the heat treatment parameters (temperature, time, and cooling rate) on the resulting microstructure has been extensively studied. In addition to the conventional heat treatment process, induction technology was investigated and the results were very promising in terms of achieving good magnetocaloric properties after short-time annealing. After only 15 min holding time at 1373 K, the magnetic entropy change (∆S) of -7.9 J/kg/K (0-2 T) was achieved.

Shaping magnetocaloric alloys to thin-walled heat exchangers is a viable way to enhance the efficiency of magnetic cooling systems. In this study shaping of La(FeSi)(13)-based alloys is carried out by Laser Beam Melting (LBM), an Additive Manufacturing method which offers a high degree of geometrical flexibility. Hence this process could be used for a broad variation and optimization of the heat exchanger structures as well as for a small scale production for prototype systems. However, the adaption of the LBM process to La(FeSi)(13)-alloys requires careful choice of the base powder, the laser melting parameters and the conditions of the subsequent heat treatment. In this work, structures with wall thickness below 500 mu m are successfully produced from both La(FeSiCo)(13) and LaCe(FeMnSi)(13), and the effect of the particle size and composition of the powder and the laser melting parameters is investigated. Additionally, the magnetocaloric entropy change after the heat treatment is reported.