Unique Structure in Vertical Cross Section of 3D Metal Printing Products

Looking at the vertical cross section of the 3D printed AlSi12, we can observe regularly arranged scaly metallographic structure, that was formed when printing the product by adding up the layers.

This unique structure, which appears in as-built Aluminum alloy part, makes the parts stronger than the die casting parts.

Fig.2 and Fig.3 show the vertical section image of AlSi12 before and after the solution heat treatment.
After the solution heat treatment, the scaly structure disappears and the uniform crystallized Si appears.
After the solution heat treatment, tensile strength drops to about half of the strength. From this, we can see that there is a relation between this scaly structure and the strength of the product.