The Mechanical Strength Of AlSi10Mg Manufactured By L-PBF Under Uniaxial Loading: The Role Defect Population And Powder Features

AlSi10Mg produced by laser power bed fusion (L-PBF) is an interesting candidate material for the development of structural parts in aerospace and automotive industries and great efforts have been made to optimize the processing for enhanced mechanical performance. However, a large scatter in the mechanical properties is frequently observed, especially in the as built state. In this investigation four different AlSi10Mg powders are processed by three different commercial processes to evaluate tensile properties between batches and to investigate the role of defects for the mechanical performance. The defects populations in the tensile specimens are studied using various techniques. The results show that a large scatter in the tensile properties within a batch is directly related to the severity of the defect population and that defect characteristics vary between the batches. The batches produced with dehumidified powders display the lowest scatter in tensile properties and the lowest defect populations.