Aluminum matrix composites (AMC) are of great interest and importance as high-performance materials with enhanced mechanical properties. Al2O3 is a commonly used reinforcement in AMCs fabricated by means of various technological methods, including casting and sintering. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a suitable modern method of the fabrication of net-shape fully dense parts from AMC with alumina. The main results, achievements, and difficulties of SLM applied to AMCs with alumina are discussed in this review and compared with conventional methods. It was shown that the initial powder preparation, namely the particle size distribution, sphericity, and thorough mixing, affected the final microstructure and properties of SLMed materials drastically. The distribution of reinforcing particles tends to consolidate the near-melting pool-edges process because of pushing by the liquid–solid interface during the solidification process that is a common problem of various fabrication methods. The achievement of an homogeneous distribution was shown to be possible through both the thorough mixing of the initial powders and the precise optimization of SLM parameters. The strength of the AMCs fabricated by the SLM method was relatively low compared with materials produced by conventional methods, while for superior relative densities of more than 99%, hardness and tribological properties were obtained, making SLM a promising method for the Al-based matrix composites with Al2O3.

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Rare-earth (R)-iron alloys are a backbone of permanent magnets. Recent increase in price of rare earths has pushed the industry to seek ways to reduce the R-content in the hard magnetic materials. For this reason strong magnets with the ThMn12 type of structure came into focus. Functional properties of R(Fe,T)12 (T-element stabilizes the structure) compounds or their interstitially modified derivatives, R(Fe,T)12-X (X is an atom of hydrogen or nitrogen) are determined by the crystal-electric-field (CEF) and exchange interaction (EI) parameters. We have calculated the parameters using high-field magnetization data. We choose the ferrimagnetic Tm-containing compounds, which are most sensitive to magnetic field and demonstrate that TmFe11Ti-H reaches the ferromagnetic state in the magnetic field of 52 T. Knowledge of exact CEF and EI parameters and their variation in the compounds modified by the interstitial atoms is a cornerstone of the quest for hard magnetic materials with low rare-earth content.

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