Composition Profiles at the Metal Substrate-Deposit Interface Produced in Laser-Assisted Additive Manufacturing...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Additive Manufacturing
• Metallurgy

Background:

• Laser-assisted additive manufacturing (LAAM) involves depositing metal layers onto substrates.
• Understanding the elemental distribution in the substrate-deposit interface is crucial for material properties.
• Previous studies have noted variations in composition but lacked a quantitative model.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the composition profile of substrate-deposit metal pairs produced by LAAM.
• To develop a mathematical model to describe the observed asymmetric composition profiles.
• To validate the model's general relevance across different material combinations.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to analyze the elemental composition across the cross-section of LAAM samples.
• Systematically scanning the composition profile from substrate to deposit.
• Developing a mathematical model based on spontaneous homogenization in the intermixing zone.

Main Results:

• EDS analysis revealed asymmetric composition profiles in various substrate-deposit metal pairs.
• A distinct pattern of sudden composition change followed by slow decay was observed.
• The developed mathematical model quantitatively describes the observed composition profiles.

Conclusions:

• The asymmetric composition profile in LAAM is a common phenomenon explained by spontaneous homogenization.
• The proposed mathematical model provides a quantitative tool for predicting composition variations.
• Composition variation is a likely underlying cause for observed changes in physical properties like hardness.