The Bonding of Additive Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V via the Powder Interlayer Bonding (PIB) Process

Peter W F Davies ,Helen Davies ,Silvia Marchisio

doi:10.1051/matecconf/202032104022

Peter W F Davies , Helen Davies + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/202032104022

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Abstract

Powder interlayer bonding (PIB) is a novel joining technique. The technique has been developed to facilitate high integrity repairs of aerospace components, manufactured from titanium alloys commonly employed in the aerospace industry. The PIB technique utilises an interlayer between the two faying surfaces. In this study heating was supplied via induction, enabling a bond to be created in an inert atmosphere, shielding the fusion zone from oxidation during bonding. The PIB technique proved capable of producing high integrity bonds in additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V, where approximately 85% of the strength of the alloy is retained after bonding. Advantages of this technique over more established joining methods such as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding and plasma arc (PA) welding include a narrow fusion zone and localised heating. It is believed that PIB can compete against these more mature techniques, providing a technique suitable for joining a range of alloys found in the aerospace industry.

Highlights

The drive for increased performance from gas turbines often requires more complex geometrical components to be incorporated in their design, which can result in challenging repair conditions
Through further development it is anticipated that the process will complement the more mature joining techniques that are commonly used to join titanium alloys such as plasma arc (PA) welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, laser beam (LB) welding[3]
This structure is characteristic of the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) manufacturing process where partial remelting of the previous layers occurs [18]

Summary

Introduction

The drive for increased performance from gas turbines often requires more complex geometrical components to be incorporated in their design, which can result in challenging repair conditions. Through further development it is anticipated that the process will complement the more mature joining techniques that are commonly used to join titanium alloys such as plasma arc (PA) welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, laser beam (LB) welding[3]. These mature techniques are widely used there are some drawbacks associated with employing them. These processes necessitate very high temperatures at the weld region, resulting in HAZ’s of varying sizes. It is seen as an attractive process for titanium alloys offering the potential to reduce manufacturing costs through reduced machining and shorter component lead times

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