Comparison of microstructure, crystallographic texture, and mechanical properties in Ti–15Mo–5Zr–3Al alloys fabricated via electron and laser beam powder bed fusion technologies

Abstract

Depending on the application, establishing a strategy for selecting the type of powder bed fusion technology—from electron beam (EB-PBF) or laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF)—is important. In this study, we focused on the β-type Ti–15Mo–5Zr–3Al alloy (expected for hard-tissue implant applications) as a model material, and we examined the variations in the microstructure, crystallographic texture, and resultant mechanical properties of specimens fabricated by L-PBF and EB-PBF. Because the melting mode transforms from the conduction mode to the keyhole mode with an increase in the energy density in L-PBF, the relative density of the L-PBF-built specimen decreases at higher energy densities, unlike that of the EB-PBF-built specimen. Although both EB-PBF and L-PBF can obtain cubic crystallographic textures via bidirectional scanning with a 90° rotation in each layer, the formation mechanisms of the textures were found to be different. The <100> texture in the build direction is mainly derived from the vertically grown columnar cells in EB-PBF, whereas it is derived from the vertically and horizontally grown columnar cells in L-PBF. Consequently, different textures were developed via bidirectional scanning without rotation in each layer: the <110> and <100> aligned textures along the build direction in L-PBF and EB-PBF, respectively. The L-PBF-built specimen exhibited considerably better ductility, but slightly lower strength than the EB-PBF-built specimen, under the conditions of the same crystallographic texture and relative density. We attributed this to the variation in the microstructures of the specimens; the formation of the α-phase was completely absent in the L-PBF-built specimen. The results demonstrate the importance of properly selecting the two technologies according to the material and its application.