Influence of forming conditions on the titanium model in rapid prototyping with the selective laser melting process

Abstract

In order to evaluate the titanium model to be used for medical purposes in rapid prototyping with the selective laser melting process, the influence of forming conditions on the mechanical properties is investigated. The density and mechanical properties such as tensile and fatigue strengths of the model are measured. In the selective laser melting process, a pulsed yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) laser with average power of 50 W and maximum peak power of 3 kW is used. The specimens for measuring density and mechanical properties are made from commercial pure titanium powders (grade 1) in a controlled atmosphere with argon gas. It is found that the relative density of the model is higher than 92 per cent and some powder particles remain within the solidified model. The scan speed affects the tensile strength strongly and the tensile strength is around 120 per cent of the standard value of the solid pure titanium when the scan speed is appropriate. However, the fatigue strength is low, about 10 per cent of the solid one, which is still to be improved by post-processing.

Influence of Build Orientation, Heat Treatment, and Laser Power on the Hardness of Ti6Al4V Manufactured Using the DMLS Process

“…Many authors in the research are focused on the effects of Ti6Al4V processing technology on its mechanical, fatigue properties, surface quality after machining, and so on [20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. In particular, the influence of the building direction in additive technologies is observed.…”

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of pure gold

“…As compared to the sintering of powder in some other RM processes, the complete melting of powder in SLM could produce parts with much higher density and strength. SLM has already been successfully applied to process aluminium, copper, iron, stainless and tool steel, chromium, nickel alloys, titanium and composites of these materials [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Gold has been used for ornaments for centuries; however, very little work has been published [10] on the laser melting of precious metals like gold and its alloys.…”

The key metallurgical features of selective laser melting of stainless steel powder for building metallic part

“…Second, investigate the effects of processing parameters (laser power, scan speed, scan interval, layer thickness, scan path, etc.) on the final properties (density, strength, surface roughness, etc) and choose more reasonable forming parameters [8][9][10][11]. Third, seek for more suitable metal powders for SLM to enlarge its application field [12][13][14][15][16].…”