MECHANICAL AND MICROSTRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF AL-4008 PRODUCED BY ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING VIA LIQUID METAL PRINTING

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) applications continue to gain traction as a viable and advantageous means of manufacturing compared to traditional manufacturing (TM) techniques. Liquid metal printing is an AM technique in which a metal filament is melted in a nozzle and delivered onto a heated bed, layer by layer, to build a part. This work studied the mechanical properties and microstructural features of liquid metal printed Al-4008 by performing tensile and microhardness tests, along with X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Mechanical properties of Al-4008 parts produced via liquid metal printing were compared to A356 cast aluminum parts following T6 heat treatment. Microhardness tests revealed that the hardness, tensile, and yield strength increase 2-3 times after the solution treatment and artificial aging. Print direction directly affects mechanical properties, specifically tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength.