A Novel Approach for Rapid Material Library Generation Using Laser‐Remelting

Cost‐ and time‐demanding trial‐and‐error methods have been the historical route for alloy development. A combinatorial approach can significantly simplify and accelerate the development process by characterization of composition dependent properties on material libraries, which are specimens or sets of specimens that map out a certain composition space, often employing composition profiles. Herein, a promising production method for such a material library is proposed: laser‐remelting of stacked blocks of different compositions is evaluated for its suitability to produce material libraries, using the ternary CrCoNi system for a proof‐of‐concept. The composition profiles of the successfully created CrCoNi material library were measured by electron probe micro analysis. The intermixing has a length of about 2.5 mm. An analytical model describing the intermixing process is proposed and shows value in the estimation of the intermixing length after the first melting step. The comparison of the experimental microstructure observations from this work and from literature shows mostly good agreement with some deviations related to microsegregation and finite quenching cooling rates, which is supported by thermodynamic calculations regarding phase stability. In the single‐phase region, the mechanical properties as measured via microhardness indentation are discussed as potential candidates for model validation.