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Performance of Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Ti6al4v Up to 300 Μm Layer Thickness

SSRN, ISSN: 1556-5068
2023
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Article Description

Within the realm of metal additive manufacturing, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) has maintained a dominant role by offering exceptional geometric freedom, fine feature resolution and fine microstructure features. However, low productivity still presents a bottleneck in the adaptation of LPBF in most industrial contexts. In recent literature, build-up rates have shown to improve notably when thicker powder layers are employed. This study systematically investigates the achievable LPBF build rates of Ti6Al4V for a range of 60 µm to 300 µm. The resulting relative densities and microstructures are characterised and correlated to quasi-static tensile performance. Relative density and mechanical performance are found to deteriorate beyond 180 µm layer thickness through the occurrence of lack-of-fusion porosity. While Youngs modulus (~110 GPa) and yield strength (~1.1 GPa) remain comparable to ‘conventional’ LPBF Ti6Al4V throughout the investigated range of layer thickness, elongation to failure decreases from 11.4 ± 2.7% at 60 µm to 8.4 ± 1.1% at 180 µm and finally to 2.0 ± 0.3% at 300 µm. In addition to porosity analysis, microstructural differences in the parent β phase texture are identified and correlated to decreased ductility at thicker layers. While productivity increases with layer thickness up to 8.76 mm3/s at 300 µm, the achievable build rate appears to converge around 300 µm layer height. The results of this study highlight the effects and limitations of increased powder layer thickness for the LPBF process.

Bibliographic Details

Simon Brudler; Alexander E. Medvedev; Chrysoula Pandelidi; M. Qian; Milan Brandt; Sebastian Piegert; Trevor Illston

Elsevier BV

Multidisciplinary; Additive manufacturing; layer thickness; Ti6Al4V; microstructure; productivity.

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