Functionally graded Ni-Ti microstructures synthesised in process by direct laser metal deposition

T E Abioye,P Kinnel,A T Clare,P K Farayibi

doi:10.1007/s00170-015-6878-8

T E Abioye, P Kinnel + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-6878-8

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Abstract

The fabrication of biomedical devices using Ni-Ti compositions is limited to conventional techniques and the use of near equiatomic pre-alloyed Ni and Ti powders. In this study, functionally graded walls and cylinder built by concurrent feeding of Ni powder and commercially pure (CP) Ti wire using direct laser metal deposition technique are presented. The built structures consist of CP Ti wire-deposited layers and Ni-Ti layers of varying Ni composition. The microstructures of the built Ni-Ti structures including phase identification, phase compositions and area fractions of the phases present at various processing parameters were determined using a combination of scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry and image processing software. Vickers micro-hardness test was conducted on the deposited structures. It was found that the Ni-Ti layers comprise of NiTi and NiTi2 phases. The area fraction of the NiTi phase increases, whereas NiTi2 decreases with increasing the Ni powder feed rate. Ni-Ti layers with higher area fractions of NiTi2 phase are found to be harder with a maximum of 513 HV0.3 found in this study. The micro-hardness of Ni-Ti layers is, by at least a factor of 1.5, higher than the CP Ti wire laser-deposited layers.

Highlights

Ni-Ti alloys have found applications in many areas of engineering ranging from aerospace to biomedical [1]
This is due to their unique properties such as superelasticity, biocompatibility, shape memory effect and excellent corrosion resistance which have made them a material of choice for the manufacture of vascular stents and other medical devices used for bone and tissue replacement in the human body [2, 3]
When the Ni powder and pure Ti wire were concurrently deposited on Ti-6Al-4V substrate, the Ni-Ti clad layer did not bond well with the substrate

Summary

Introduction

Ni-Ti alloys have found applications in many areas of engineering ranging from aerospace to biomedical [1] This is due to their unique properties such as superelasticity, biocompatibility, shape memory effect and excellent corrosion resistance which have made them a material of choice for the manufacture of vascular stents and other medical devices used for bone and tissue replacement in the human body [2, 3]. These unique properties combined with a high strength to weight ratio and high toughness make Ni-Ti a commonly used material for energy dissipation in landing gear and other related aerospace structural subsystems [4]. The microstructure, the properties of the components built using AM techniques can be tailored to the required design intent by controlling the processing parameters [5]

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