Abstract
Ti-6Al-4V is the most prominent titanium alloy widely used e.g. for aerospace applications. Conventionally, many Ti-6Al-4V aerospace components are produced by a multi-stage hot forging process followed by subsequent machining which often generates a high amount of scrap. Additive manufacturing (AM), such as powder-based laser material deposition (p-LMD), enables parts to be made with geometric freedom and near-net-shape, but so far lacks high deposition rates. The present study proposes high-deposition-rate laser material deposition manufacturing using a large laser beam diameter and increased scanning speed to achieve deposition rates up to 5 kg/h. As Ti-6Al-4V is prone to oxygen pick-up, the process was performed in an inert atmosphere. We determined suitable process windows for tracks without fusion defects and low porosity and investigated microstructure and hardness.
Highlights
Nowadays, Ti-6Al-4V is the most commonly used titanium alloy
We investigated the as-built single-track microstructures of a Ti-6Al-4V part manufactured with Laser material deposition (LMD), focusing on phase formation and grain coarsening
The laser power was varied for the laser beam diameter of 3 mm in a range of approximately 1450 W - 1850 W and the powder feed rate ranged between approx. 6.61 g/min and 10.2 g/min
Summary
Over half of the titanium alloy market is based on Ti-6Al-4V [1] It belongs to the group of (α+β) alloys exhibiting high strength at medium density and excellent corrosion resistance, and is used in various sectors such as aerospace, automotive, medicine, chemical industry and power generation [2,3]. Laser material deposition (LMD), known as direct energy deposition (DED) or laser cladding, is an additive manufacturing method in which complex geometries can be formed by the multilayer arrangement of subsequent layers [1,2] In this process, a laser beam is passed over the surface of the component, which is selectively melted. A way to overcome this is to increase the deposition rate on the scale of several kg/h
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