Underwater wire-feed laser deposition of the Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

Abstract

Underwater wire-feed laser deposition (UWLD) of the Ti–6Al–4V alloy was firstly carried out utilizing a laser deposition nozzle, and the deposition appearance, geometry characteristics, microstructure and microhardness of deposited tracks were studied. At a lower gas flow rate, the absorption of residual water and scattering of aerosol particles on laser beam caused UWLD instability and decreased molten metal wettability. Upon increasing the gas flow rate, the aerosol particle density decreased, increasing the laser density and decreasing the cooling rate of molten metal; thus, the height and deposition angle of UWLD track decreased as the corresponding width and fusion depth increased. The microstructures of the deposited metal at a gas flow rate of 10 L/min were composed of the coarse lath α phase in upper region and the acicular martensite α′ with different size scales in middle and bottom regions. With increasing the gas flow rate to 20 L/min, the microstructure was primarily acicular martensite along with a small amount of α phase, and the martensite exhibited a larger grain size and stronger texture. At a gas flow rate of 20 L/min, the deposited process was stable and uniform deposition track without oxidation layer was obtained for UWLD Ti–6Al–4V alloy.