Journal of Materials Processing Technology 214 (2014) 856–864 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Materials Processing Technology jou rn al h om epage : www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec Evaluation of light-weight AlSi10Mg periodic cellular lattice structures fabricated via direct metal laser sintering Chunze Yan a,b , Liang Hao a,∗ , Ahmed Hussein a , Simon Lawrence Bubb c , Philippe Young a , David Raymont d a College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QF, Devon, United Kingdom b State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China c 3T RPD Ltd, Newbury RG19 6HD, Berkshire, United Kingdom d Simpleware Ltd, Exeter EX4 3PL, Devon, United Kingdom a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 July 2013 Received in revised form 21 November 2013 Accepted 6 December 2013 Available online 15 December 2013 Keywords: Additive manufacture Direct metal laser sintering Aluminium alloy Periodic cellular lattice structures Morphology Compression test a b s t r a c t Aluminium alloy porous structures are highly demanded for many applications such as light-weight aerospace and heat exchanger products. Conventional manufacturing methods such as casting, however, faces difficulty in making aluminium alloy complex periodic cellular lattice structures with designed unit cell shape and size and volume fraction. This study evaluates the manufacturability and performance of AlSi10Mg periodic cellular lattice structures fabricated via direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). Various lattice structures at different volume fractions and unit cell sizes are designed by repeating a unit cell type called “diamond”. Due to the self-supported feature of the diamond unit cell, low volume fraction (7.5–15%) AlSi10Mg periodic cellular lattice structures can be fabricated by the DMLS process with the unit cell sizes ranging from 3 mm to 7 mm. A good geometric agreement is found between the original design structure models and the DMLS made structures, but the strut sizes of the DMLS made structures are slightly higher than the designed values and thus pore sizes decrease. There is clear relationship between the compressive modulus and strength of the structures and their volume fraction and unit size. Hence, this study shows that light-weight aluminium structures can be designed and made with the controlled unit size and volume fraction and the predicted mechanical properties. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Light-weight metal cellular structures are a unique classifica- tion of materials. They can offer high performance features such as high strength accompanied by a relatively low mass, good energy absorption characteristics and good thermal and acoustic insu- lation properties (Nakajima, 2007). Metal cellular structures are formed as two common types: stochastic porous structures and periodic cellular lattice structures. Metal stochastic porous struc- tures typically have a random distribution of open or closed voids, whereas metal periodic cellular lattice structures have uniform structures that are based on repeating unit cells. In general, peri- odic structures show superior mechanical properties (i.e. energy absorption, strength and stiffness), easier control of structure prop- erties, better load sustaining capabilities and higher surface area densities than the stochastic porous structures (Williams et al., 2011). Therefore, metal periodic cellular lattice structures can be used to develop light-weight structures that can provide advanced ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44(0)1392723665. E-mail addresses: c.yan@exeter.ac.uk (C. Yan), l.hao@exeter.ac.uk (L. Hao). or multifunctional performance for high value engineering prod- ucts such as automobile, aerospace and medical products (Zhou et al., 2004). These periodic lattice structures, however, currently face a higher manufacturing complexity than the stochastic struc- tures. It can be time and cost consuming to use conventional methods (i.e. investment casting, deformation forming, metal wire approaches, brazing etc.) to make periodic cellular lattice struc- tures. The structures made by conventional methods possess relatively simple geometries and limited design freedoms, and consequently lack advanced functionality to meet more advanced requirements and applications. Additive manufacturing (AM) is able to make three-dimensional objects with virtually any shape from computer-aided design (CAD) models, and thus have been used to fabricate cellular struc- tures with controlled internal structures and complex external shapes extensively in the past few years. For example, Heinl et al. (2008) built cellular Ti-6Al-4V structures with interconnected macro porosity for bone implants by selective electron beam melt- ing. Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or selective laser sintering (SLM) is the powder bed fusion (PBF) process of AM technolo- gies and capable of producing fully-dense metal components with complex freeform geometry directly from computer-aided design 0924-0136/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2013.12.004