Achieving high-plasticity pure aluminium from wire-based friction stir additive manufacturing

In the request for sustainable development in complex components manufacturing, designing room-temperature high-plasticity material with simpler alloys becomes paramount. Here, pure aluminium composed of homogenously equiaxed grain was achieved by wire-based friction stir additive manufacturing, exhibiting an ultimate tensile strength of 143 MPa and a uniform elongation of 52.1%. The significant enhancement in plasticity was attributed to the equiaxed grains sustaining huge plastic strains via grain boundary sliding and grain rotation. Dislocation/disclination motion was discovered for the activation mechanism of the grain boundary sliding and grain rotation. This discovery advances the tailoring approach to developing large-sized materials with higher plasticity.