A preliminary study on high-entropy alloys for laser powder bed process

Recently, high entropy alloys (HEAs) have represented a field of intense research in metallurgy because of their unique properties such as high temperature strength and ductility. HEAs are multiple principal element systems with five or more elements in near equiatomic concentration, usually favouring the entropic stabilization of a disordered solid solution. The choice of starting element composition (low density, refractory, etc.) allows to tailor microstructures (FCC, BCC, etc.) and resultant properties. Within this research, a propaedeutic study is conducted to develop a new HEA suitable for the powder bed additive manufacturing process called selective laser melting (SLM). SLM could provide the necessary local process control and high solidification rate to turn HEAs into engineering materials. HEAs were obtained by high energy ball milling of a proper selection of pure elemental powders (Al, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Cu, Nb). Mechanically alloyed powders were then characterized by DSC, XRD and electron microscopy.