Semisolid-Liquid Fabrication of Cu–Cr Pseudobinary Alloy by Laser-Directed Energy Deposition

Abstract

Copper–Chromium (Cu–Cr) pseudobinary alloys are promising materials for electrical application. Nevertheless, their fabrication remains limited by traditional techniques, which are not suitable for manufacturing homogeneous Cu–Cr alloys with uniformly distributed elements. Recently, semisolid-liquid manufacturing method has emerged as a promising technique route to fabricate Cu–Cr alloys. In this work, the laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED) as one of the laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology, was successfully introduced for semisolid-liquid fabricating the homogeneous Cu–30 mass%Cr alloys. The obtained Cu–Cr alloys are constituted by fully melted Cu metallurgically combined with semisolid-liquid Cr. The close combination of Cu and Cr is benefit to improve the electrical conductivity of the alloy.

Schematic showing formation process of the Cu-Cr alloys fabricated under different laser energies. By adjusting the laser energy input, the Cr in the molten pool can be un-melted, partially melted and fully melted.