AccScience Publishing / MSAM / Volume 5 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.36922/MSAM025340079
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

 Reactive selective laser melting of silicon carbide

Tsovinar Ghaltaghchyan1* ,  Khachik Nazaretyan2 ,  Ani Khachikyan1 ,  Marina Aghayan1
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1 3D printing Research Laboratory, A.B. Nalbandyan Institute of Chemical Physics NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia
2 Laboratory of Macrokinetics of Solid-State Reactions, A.B. Nalbandyan Institute of Chemical Physics NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia
MSAM 2026, 5(1), 025340079 https://doi.org/10.36922/MSAM025340079
Received: 22 August 2025 | Accepted: 24 September 2025 | Published online: 31 October 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Additive manufacturing of silicon carbide (SiC) is challenging due to uncontrollable quality, surface roughness of fabricated parts, expensive post-processing, and long production times for customized components. Developing cost-effective, rapid manufacturing techniques that maintain high quality and design freedom is therefore highly desirable. In this study, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) followed by ultra-fast post heat treatment was applied to produce SiC-based composites using silicon and carbon powders as raw materials. The influence of processing parameters on silicon-carbon reaction and sintering was investigated. Boron carbide was used as an additive to enhance sintering. Substantial SiC formation occurred despite the limited heating time. Boron carbide influenced both SiC formation and grain growth. The maximum Vickers hardness (1218 HV0.2) was achieved in boron carbide-containing heat-treated samples printed at a laser power of 48 W. This novel approach enables the efficient fabrication of SiC-based composites with enhanced hardness, underscoring the potential of LPBF for cost-effective and customizable ceramic component manufacturing.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Laser powder bed fusion
Selective laser melting
Silicon carbide
Ultra-fast heating
High-speed temperature scanner
Reactive sintering
Funding
This work was supported by the Higher Education and Science Committee of MESCS RA under grant numbers 22AA-2F022 and 22IRF-05.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9635 Published by AccScience Publishing
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