Microstructural analysis and micro-hardness measurements were performed on different planes of AlSi10Mg alloy fabricated by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) technique. A fine cellular dendritic network was observed within the alloy microstructure, where morphology of most cells changed from columnar on XZ-plane (vertical section) to equiaxed on XY-plane (horizontal section). Correspondingly, morphology of most grains was found to alter from columnar for the XZ-plane to equiaxed in the case of the XY-plane. Thus, the morphology of the solidification cells was determined to be strongly dependent on the morphology of the grains containing them. Moreover, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed a similar phase assemblage for both the planes. The average micro-hardness value for the XZ-plane and XY-plane was insignificantly (≈ 3%) different, which was attributed to the random grain orientation observed on both the planes.
- Additive manufacturing,
- Aluminum,
- DMLS,
- Hardness,
- Microstructure
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