A study on the lateral rolling friction additive manufacturing on microstructure and mechanical properties

This study introduces a novel lateral rolling friction additive manufacturing (L-RFAM) using sheet. Process optimization focuses on the lateral deposition orientation, which increases the contact area between the friction tool and the sheet to ensure sufficient heat input for high-quality deposition. Solid-state manufacturing of metal structures is achieved using a milling cutter featuring orthogonal intersecting vertical and horizontal grooves as the tool head. To investigate the material formation mechanism during L-RFAM, the surface morphology, microstructure evolution, and properties of the deposited samples were analyzed. Al-Mg-Si-Sc alloy was successfully fabricated using L-RFAM in this work. The deposited samples exhibited an equiaxed fine-grained microstructure. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the interface bonding zone reached 95 % of that of the base metal, and its elongation (EL) increased by 27.5 %. The tensile strength (UTS) of the additive region decreased by 21.5 %, but its elongation (EL) increased by 50 %. L-RFAM demonstrates significant potential for solid-state additive manufacturing and provides fundamental insights applicable to future applications in material repair, gradient manufacturing, and miniaturization.