Latest Developments to Manufacture Metal Matrix Composites and Functionally Graded Materials through AM: A State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

Multi-material structure fabrication has the potential to address some critical challenges in today’s industrial paradigm. While conventional manufacturing processes cannot deliver multi-material structures in a single operation, additive manufacturing (AM) has come up as an appealing alternative. In particular, laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED) is preferred for multi-material AM. The most relevant applications envisioned for multi-material LDED are alloy design, metal matrix composites (MMC), and functionally graded materials (FGM). Nonetheless, there are still some issues that need to be faced before multi-material L-DED is ready for industrial use. Driven by this need, in this literature review, the suitability of L-DED for multi-material component fabrication is first demonstrated. Then, the main defects associated with multi-material LDED and current opportunities and challenges in the field are reported. In view of the industrial relevance of high-performance coatings as tools to mitigate wear, emphasis is placed on the development of MMCs and FGMs. The identified challenges include—but are not limited to—tightly controlling the composition of the multi-material powder mixture injected into the melt pool; understanding the influence of the thermal history of the process on microstructural aspects, including the interactions between constituents; and studying the in-service behaviours of MMCs and FGMs with regard to their durability and failure modes.

Application of Surface Stress-Driven Model for Higher Vibration Modes of Functionally Graded Nanobeams

“…Further progress has been made with the introduction of a new class of composite materials, namely functionally graded (FG) materials, in the field of both structures and nanostructures, which allow high performance to be maintained even under severe thermal and mechanical stress [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

New Processing Route for the Production of Functionally Graded 7075 Al/SiCp Composites via a Combination of Semisolid Stirring and Sequential Squeeze Casting

“…Nature's unique structures have been applied in high-tech materials; one example is in the advent of functionally graded metal matrix composites (FG-MMCs) [1]. This group of materials can be categorized as advanced materials in the engineering composites family [2].…”

Influence of tungsten carbide-cobalt reinforcement on flexural behavior of iron-based composite developed through microwave

“…The L-DED applicable for alloy design, functionally graded materials (FGM), and MMC. 4 Xin et al examined the grain growth and microstructural evolution of Ag–Cu/diamond composites during the SLM process via a thermodynamic analysis; also, this work opened new tracks of high-performance Ag–Cu/diamond MMCs in several application fields. 5 Schnell et al processed diamond-reinforced MMC for abrasive tools with extravagant geometric forms using the powder bed fusion technique (PBF).…”