Layer Additive Production or Manufacturing of Thick Sections of Ti-6Al-4V by Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM)

Selective electron beam melting (SEBM) is an established layer additive manufacturing or production process for small-to-medium-sized components of Ti-6Al-4V. Current literature data on SEBM of Ti-6Al-4V are, however, based principally on thin-section (<1; mostly<0.5) samples or components. In this research, 34-mm-thick (1.34) Ti-6Al-4V block samples were produced through use of default Arcam SEBM parameters and characterized versus section thickness. High densities (99.4-99.8%) were achieved across different thick sections, but markedly inhomogeneous microstructures also developed. Nonetheless, the tensile properties measured from 27 different thickness-width positions all clearly satisfied the minimum requirements for mill-annealed Ti-6Al-4V. SEBM produced highly dense thick sections of Ti-6Al-4V with good tensile properties. Large lack-of-fusion defects (80-250 mu m) were found to be mainly responsible for variations in tensile properties.