Laser powder bed fusion of a Magnesium-SiC metal matrix composite

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is a commercially available technology to industry for a selected range of materials only. Opportune to the next stage of LPBF will be the development of multi-material capabilities alongside methods for rapid formulation of new materials. To this end the present work compares two viable material preparation techniques, namely ball milling and satelliting of powder feedstock, in which a binary material mixture is prepared. For both techniques, material handling, flowability and particle size distribution of the mixture are observed experimentally. Finally, for the first time initial experimental results with LPBF processing of a Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) composed of a magnesium (matrix) and silicon carbide (reinforcement) mixture are presented.