In space applications, low density materials and high stiffness are required to reduce the vehicle weight and therefore increase the payload. For this reason, magnesium alloys are of interest, their low density would be beneficial to substitute aluminium in many aerospace structure applications, depending on the exact stiffness and load-bearing requirements. However, only few magnesium alloys are certified, hardly available as wrought alloys, and they are more challenging in processing than aluminium alloys.

Plasma Metal Deposition (PMD) is an advanced emerging additive manufacturing technique that belongs to the Direct Energy Deposition manufacturing group, using a plasma arc as energy source for melting powder or wire feedstock materials with high deposition rates [1,2]. The application of PMD manufactured Mg-alloys components in space hardware is beneficial as it allows implementing integral, complex and large designed structures.

In this study, the manufacturing and processing of AZ91 wires into a near net shape component using PMD is presented with the aim of producing a large scale, complex technological demonstrator.

Thin-wall structures were fabricated with small-batch wire feedstock AZ91, tensile test samples and test coupons were extracted to evaluate mechanical properties and microstructure of the as deposited and heat-treated material. Furthermore, to be qualified for space applications, stress corrosion cracking experiments are done on test coupons and thermal cycling behaviour of the AZ91 manufactured component is studied.