Fabrication and microstructural characterisation of additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V parts by electron beam melting

Abstract

An industrial impeller has been successfully fabricated by using Ti-6Al-4V extra low interstitial (ELI) powder via an Arcam A2XX electron beam melting (EBM®) machine. With the introduction of the A2XX, Arcam allowed the production of complex large-scale parts for industrial applications. However, the implementation of as-built metallic additive manufacturing (AM) parts in the industry is still far from straightforward and requires a sound understanding of the processing and the material properties of as-built part. This study examines the EBM thermal process influencing the microstructure evolution of Ti-6Al-4V by the EBM process. Ti-6Al-4V blocks with varying thicknesses were fabricated to simulate the different thickness of complex parts. The microstructure and Vickers hardness were evaluated. This paper mainly contributes to the EBM manufacturing of the industrial impeller and the build thickness dependence of microstructure and mechanical properties in EBM additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V.