Improved microstructure and mechanical properties of A517Q steel fabricated via laser directed energy deposition assisted by ultrasonic vibration combined with tempering treatment

Abstract

In this work, ultrasonic energy field assistance combined with tempering treatment is proposed to improve the microstructure and mechanical properties of A517Q alloy steel fabricated by laser directed energy deposition (LDED). The effects of ultrasonic vibration (UV) and tempering treatment on microstructure evolution, microhardness distribution and mechanical properties of deposition layer were studied in detail. The microstructure of UV assisted LDED sample after tempering is mainly composed of tempered sorbite (TS). Due to the improvement of microstructure inhomogeneity and grains refinement, UV assisted LDED sample with tempering treatment obtains excellent mechanical properties. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and elongation after breaking (EL) reach 765 MPa, 657 MPa and 19.5%, the increase ratios of UTS and YS are 14.5% and 33.8% while maintaining plasticity compared to original LDED sample, respectively. It is obvious that ultrasonic vibration combined with tempering is a potential and effective method to obtain uniform microstructure and excellent mechanical properties in metal laser directed energy deposition field.

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