A novel method enabling in-situ additive manufactured TiB2/Cu composite with high performance

In-situ additive manufacturing method utilizes the high cooling rate of melt pool to produce composite parts with nano-scaled reinforcement and high relative density. Here, an in-situ reaction during selective laser melting (SLM) was employed to produce TiB 2 -reinforced Cu composite. A heterogeneous microstructure was formed, which consists of TiB 2 particles at the interior region of the melt pool and Cu 4 Ti precipitates at the edge of the melt pool. The in-situ reaction was further activated and enables Cu 4 Ti transforms to TiB 2 by sintering at 900 °C for 15 h, resulting in an excellent combination of conductivity (∼80.8 %IACS) and tensile strength (∼346 MPa). Combined in-situ additive manufacturing with traditional high-temperature sintering procedure can provide a potent strategy for manufacturing Cu matrix composites with high strength and high conductivity.