Research trends in laser powder bed fusion of Al alloys within the last decade

Research on Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) of Al alloy powders increased exponentially over the last decade, and Al powders have become the third most studied metal alloy composition for L-PBF. This study evaluates the trends of the literature in this field to understand which material properties, process properties, and as-built part properties were decisive and of interest for L-PBF processing within the last decade. Even though the effect of the powder properties is often not discussed in detail within the studied 100 referenced Sci-Index articles, it was found that the use of particulate additives in Al powders overcame the main processing and metallurgic problems, such as anisotropic microstructure, segregations, and crack formation in the as-built parts during L-PBF. By quantifying related statistics and extracting data from the studied articles, it is found that powder size ranges of Al feedstock powders overlap in a narrower size range. AlSi10Mg is the most studied alloy; it is a eutectic Al composition that avoids the problems associated with resolidification in L-PBF. The latest research trends focused on additives for grain refinement to improve the mechanical properties and to avoid crack sensitivity in the as-built Al-Zn-Mg-(Cu) and Al-Cu-Mg parts. Additives are found to be promising to industrialize new Al alloy compositions in L-PBF. A Principle Component Analysis is carried out to determine the correlation between reported material, process, and as-built part properties.