This project aims to develop ternary high strength Al-Mn-Ce-alloys with a non-equilibrium  microstructure by the use of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF).

The demand for Aluminum alloys as construction materials for mobile applications is increasing. LPBF offers a great freedom of design and thus the option to implement the principle of lightweight construction. Furthermore, LPBF can help to overcome two challenges occurring by casting of metastable Aluminum alloys: (1) the limited part size while maintaining rapid solidification of the whole cross-section and (2) the high amount of casting defects. The local melting of the powder bed enables high cooling rates up to 10⁵ K s⁻¹ [1]. Therefore, Al-Mn-Ce alloys can be tailored to form the high-strength metastable Al₂₀Mn₂Ce phase with small grain sizes. In comparison to conventional Aluminum alloys, Al-Mn-Ce produced by LPBF exhibits a high hardness and excellent compression behavior by withstanding an engineering stress of > 1200 MPa [2].

U. Kühn acknowledges support by German Science Foundation (DFG) under grant KU 1974/15-1. The research work is realized in collaboration with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Leyens (Technical University Dresden).