Abstract
The effect of electron-beam melting (EBM) and selective laser melting (SLM) processes on the chemical composition, phase composition, density, microstructure, and microhardness of as-built Ti55511 blocks were evaluated and compared. The work also aimed to understand how each process setting affects the powder characteristics after processing. Experiments have shown that both methods can process Ti55511 successfully and can build parts with almost full density (>99%) without any internal cracks or delamination. It was observed that the SLM build sample can retain the phase composition of the initial powder, while EBM displayed significant phase changes. After the EBM process, a considerable amount of α Ti-phase and lamella-like microstructures were found in the EBM build sample and corresponding powder left in the build chamber. Both processes showed a similar effect on the variation of powder morphology after the process. Despite the apparent difference in alloying composition, the EBM build Ti55511 sample showed similar microhardness as EBM build Ti-6Al-4V. Measured microhardness of the EBM build sample is approximately 10% higher than the SLM build, and it measured as 348 ± 30.20 HV.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) known as “3D printing” is an advanced manufacturing technology which allow fabrication of geometrically complex and functional parts directly form the computer-aided design (CAD) model in a short time with limited tooling cost and with almost no material waste [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Pre-alloyed Ti–5Al–5Mo–5V–1Cr–1Fe (Ti55511) powder prepared by gas atomization with an average particle size of 43 μm for selective laser melting (SLM) and 71 μm for electron beam melting (EBM) was obtained from KAMB Import–Export
The results indicate that both methods can process Ti55511 and achieve almost full density with limited porosity
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) known as “3D printing” is an advanced manufacturing technology which allow fabrication of geometrically complex and functional parts directly form the computer-aided design (CAD) model in a short time with limited tooling cost and with almost no material waste [1,2,3,4,5,6]. AM processes involve shaping a build plate and selectively melting the raw material (e.g., wire/powder) to form a three-dimensional solid object using a high energy focused laser or electron beam with multi-axis motion. Even though the basic operational principle of the AM method is relatively simple, the actual metal AM process is complex, and the results depend upon different settings of the system such as beam power (current), scanning speed, preheat temperature, etc. These are collectively referred to as processing parameters. In the AM process, processing parameters determine the build environment and cooling conditions and, affect the phase composition [1,2,8,9], residual stress [2], texture [2,8,10], surface roughness [11], density [7,12,13], and mechanical properties [3,7,12,13,14,15]
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