Selective Laser Melting Produced Ti-6Al-4V: Post-Process Heat Treatments to Achieve Superior Tensile Properties
Materials Engineering Group, Department of Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
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Materials 2018, 11(1), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11010146
Received: 9 November 2017
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Revised: 12 December 2017
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Accepted: 15 December 2017
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Published: 17 January 2018
Current post-process heat treatments applied to selective laser melting produced Ti-6Al-4V do not achieve the same microstructure and therefore superior tensile behaviour of thermomechanical processed wrought Ti-6Al-4V. Due to the growing demand for selective laser melting produced parts in industry, research and development towards improved mechanical properties is ongoing. This study is aimed at developing post-process annealing strategies to improve tensile behaviour of selective laser melting produced Ti-6Al-4V parts. Optical and electron microscopy was used to study α grain morphology as a function of annealing temperature, hold time and cooling rate. Quasi-static uniaxial tensile tests were used to measure tensile behaviour of different annealed parts. It was found that elongated α’/α grains can be fragmented into equiaxial grains through applying a high temperature annealing strategy. It is shown that bi-modal microstructures achieve a superior tensile ductility to current heat treated selective laser melting produced Ti-6Al-4V samples.
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Keywords:
additive manufacturing; powder bed fusion; selective laser melting; heat treatment; titanium alloys; phase transformation; tensile properties
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ter Haar, G.M.; Becker, T.H. Selective Laser Melting Produced Ti-6Al-4V: Post-Process Heat Treatments to Achieve Superior Tensile Properties. Materials 2018, 11, 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11010146
AMA Style
Ter Haar GM, Becker TH. Selective Laser Melting Produced Ti-6Al-4V: Post-Process Heat Treatments to Achieve Superior Tensile Properties. Materials. 2018; 11(1):146. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11010146
Chicago/Turabian StyleTer Haar, Gerrit M., and Thorsten H. Becker. 2018. "Selective Laser Melting Produced Ti-6Al-4V: Post-Process Heat Treatments to Achieve Superior Tensile Properties" Materials 11, no. 1: 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma11010146
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