Commercial Co/WC/diamond composites are hard metals and very useful as a kind of tool material, for which both ductile and quasi-brittle behaviors are possible. This work experimentally investigates their damage evolution dependence on microstructural features. The current study investigates a different type of Co/WC-type tool material which contains 90 vol.% Co instead of the usual 50 vol.% Co. The material properties for such tool materials (>50 vol.% Co) is rarely published until now. Efforts made in the ML part contribute to the realization of autonomous processing procedures in big-data-driven science applied in materials science.

Titanium alloys are widely employed for biomedical implants due to their high strength, biocompatibility, and corrosion resistance, yet their lack of intrinsic antibacterial activity remains a major limitation. Incorporating copper, an antibacterial and β-stabilising element, offers a promising strategy to enhance implant performance. This study investigates Ti-6Al-7Nb modified with 1–9 wt.% Cu via in situ alloying during metal-based laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M), with the aim of assessing processability, microstructural evolution, and mechanical properties. Highly dense samples (>99.9%) were produced across all Cu levels, though chemical homogeneity strongly depended on processing parameters. Increasing Cu content promoted β-phase stabilisation, Ti₂Cu precipitation, and pronounced grain refinement. Hardness and yield strength increased nearly linearly with Cu addition, while ductility decreased sharply at ≥5 wt.% Cu due to intermetallic formation, hot cracking, and brittle fracture. These results illustrate both the opportunities and constraints of rapid alloy screening via PBF-LB/M. Overall, moderate Cu additions of 1–3 wt.% provide the most favourable balance between mechanical performance, manufacturability, and potential antibacterial functionality. These findings provide a clear guideline for the design of Cu-functionalised titanium implants and demonstrate the efficiency of in situ alloy screening for accelerated materials development.

To improve the representativeness of a real microstructural cut-out for modeling purposes, a numerical method named as “boundary pixel color alteration (BPCA)” is presented to modify measured 2D microstructure cut-outs. Its physical background is related to the phase growth. For the application, the precondition is that the representativeness of the microstructure is already satisfied to a certain extent. This method resolves the problem that the phase composition of a small cut-out can have a large discrepancy to the real one. The main idea is to change the pixel color among neighboring pixels belonging to different phases. Our process simultaneously maintains most of the characteristics of the original morphology and is applicable for nearly all kinds of multi-phase or polycrystalline metallic alloys, as well. From our axisymmetric finite element (FE) simulations (ABAQUS ) applied with 2D real microstructures, it shows that the volume ratios of microstructural phases, as a function of the structure position to the symmetric axis, converge to phase area ratios in the 2D cut-out, even though the axisymmetric element volume is position dependent. A mathematical proof provides the reason for the aforementioned convergence. As examples to achieve real compositions and to numerically prove the aforementioned convergence, four different materials including multiphase polycrystals are implemented. An improvement of the predicted FE result is presented for the application of a modified microstructure (with a higher representativeness) compared to the original one.

Titanium alloys are widely employed for biomedical implants due to their favourable combination of strength, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility. A drawback, however, is the lack of intrinsic antibacterial functionality. In this study, Ti 6Al 7Nb was modified with varying copper (Cu) contents (1 wt.% – 9 wt.%) via in situ alloying during metal based laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) to investigate the processing behaviour, microstructural evolution, and mechanical properties. Powder mixtures were processed under systematically varied laser parameters, with densification, surface quality, and microstructure assessed by microscopy and X-ray diffraction, while hardness and tensile properties were characterised through mechanical testing. The results demonstrate that dense samples (> 99.9 %) can be achieved for all investigated copper amounts, although the homogeneity is strongly dependent on the process parameters. An increasing copper content promotes β-phase stabilisation, Ti₂Cu precipitation, and significant grain refinement with a transition from columnar to equiaxed structures. Hardness and yield strength increase nearly linearly with increasing copper content, while the ductility decreases sharply at ≥ 5 wt.% Cu due to intermetallic formation, hot cracking, and brittle fracture mechanisms. These findings highlight both the potential and the limitations of copper additions in Ti 6Al 7Nb processed by PBF LB/M. Overall, moderate additions of 1 wt.% – 3 wt.% Cu appear most promising, offering improved mechanical performance while preserving sufficient ductility and manufacturability for biomedical applications.