A strategy to achieve high-strength WNiFe composite-like alloys with low W content by laser melting deposition

Preparing bulk WNiFe alloys with high strengths and low W content (<80 wt%) is challenging. Here, we present a strategy, powder-fed laser melting deposition (LMD), to solve this problem. The LMD-prepared WNiFe (LMD WNiFe) samples show high mechanical strengths and low W contents of 50 and 75 wt%. The W particles in the LMD WNiFe samples uniformly distribute in the matrix (γ), exhibiting fine particle sizes of approximately one-fifth of those of conventional 93WNiFe alloys prepared by liquid phase sintering (LPS). The ultimate tensile strengths of the 50 and 75 wt% samples are 1120 and 1316 MPa, respectively, which are 24.44 and 59.33% higher than those of the LPS-prepared 93WNiFe alloy (LPS 93WNiFe). These results suggest a useful strategy for preparing low-W-content, high-strength WNiFe alloys with fine, uniformly distributed W particles. This finding offers new potential applications of WNiFe alloys in additive manufacturing.