from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Currently, 3D-printing of smart materials is actively developing. Alloys based on intermetallic compounds Ni-Mn-Ga and Ni-Co-Al are of great interest due to the ability to manipulate their deformation behavior by external magnetic field with much higher effect than in conventional magnetostrictive materials. These materials can be used not only as sensors, but also as elements of smart structures and actuators of modern power drives. In this study we synthesized Ni36Co37Al27 alloy by mechanical alloying with further plasma spheroidization and fabricated the samples by selective laser melting (SLM). Elemental Co, Ni and Al powders were used as initial materials for mechanical alloying process. The influence of mechanical alloying parameters on the physical and chemical properties of the obtained materials was investigated. It was found that the low-energy mode of the planetary mill provides mixing of the alloy components with the least amount of impurity. The final spherical powders for 3D-printing were obtained by plasma spheroidization followed by separation of 10-40 µm fraction. Selective laser melting was used to fabricate samples from synthesized Ni36Co37Al27 powder. The obtained samples had a two-phase γ+β-structure with a density from 5.41 to 7.27 g/cm3 and a hardness of up to 447 HV. In the course of the work carried out, the most optimal modes for SLM printing from the Ni36Co37Al27 alloy were selected to obtain samples with maximal density under minimal ability to crack formation.
Keywords: Magnetic shape memory alloys, mechanical alloying, additive technologies, powder metallurgy, plasma spheroidization© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.