Friction deposition of titanium particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites

Friction deposition is one of the promising new techniques for additive manufacturing. In this work, an aluminum matrix composite reinforced with titanium particles was successfully friction deposited. The multi-layer composite friction deposits showed well-bonded layers, very fine grain size, and uniformly distributed titanium particles. While the reinforcement/matrix interfaces showed no reaction products, the layer interfaces showed thin intermetallic bands. These brittle intermetallic bands were found to strongly affect the ductility of the multi-layer composite friction deposits in the build direction. However, the composite friction deposits performed satisfactorily in compression tests as well as in single-layer tensile tests.