Research Progress on Laser Additive Manufacturing of Metal Matrix Composites

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have achieved synergistic improvements in strength, stiffness, and high-temperature resistance by introducing reinforcement phases such as ceramic particles, fibers, and whiskers into the metal matrixes, and they have become one of the core candidate materials for key components of high-end equipment. However, traditional manufacturing processes face challenges such as difficult molding, complex operations, high production costs, and uneven distribution of reinforcement phases, making it difficult to achieve integrated manufacturing of complex structural components. Additive manufacturing, with its innovative manufacturing concept of “layer-by-layer deposition”, breaks through the material waste and structural molding limitations of traditional subtractive manufacturing, providing technical support for the efficient preparation of MMCs. In this paper, common types of additive manufacturing MMCs, selection of printing process parameters, microstructure, and second-phase interfaces are reviewed, the evolution laws of mechanical properties such as microhardness, strength, and ductility of common additive manufacturing MMCs clarified, and an outlook on future research directions for additive manufacturing MMCs provided.