Mitigating Inhomogeneity and Tailoring the Microstructure of Selective Laser Melted Titanium Orthorhombic Alloy by Heat Treatment, Hot Isostatic Pressing, and Multiple Laser Exposures

Titanium orthorhombic alloys based on intermetallic Ti2AlNb-phase are attractive materials for lightweight high-temperature applications. However, conventional manufacturing of Ti2AlNb-based alloys is costly and labor-consuming. Additive Manufacturing is an attractive way of producing parts from Ti2AlNb-based alloys. High-temperature substrate preheating during Selective Laser Melting is required to obtain crack-free intermetallic alloys. Due to the nature of substrate preheating, the temperature profile along the build height might be uneven leading to inhomogeneous microstructure and defects. The microstructural homogeneity of the alloy along the build direction was evaluated. The feasibility of mitigating the microstructural inhomogeneity was investigated by fabricating Ti2AlNb-alloy samples with graded microstructure and subjecting them to annealing. Hot isostatic pressing allowed us to achieve a homogeneous microstructure, eliminate residual micro defects, and improve mechanical properties with tensile strength reaching 1027 MPa and 860 MPa at room temperature and 650 °C, correspondingly. Annealing of the microstructurally graded alloy at 1050 °C allowed us to obtain a homogeneous B2 + O microstructure with a uniform microhardness distribution. The results of the study showed that the microstructural inhomogeneity of the titanium orthorhombic alloy obtained by SLM can be mitigated by annealing or hot isostatic pressing. Additionally, it was shown that by applying multiple-laser exposure for processing each layer it is possible to locally tailor the phase volume and morphology and achieve microstructure and properties similar to the Ti2AlNb-alloy obtained at higher preheating temperatures.

High-Temperature Tribological Behavior of the Ti-22Al-25Nb (at. %) Orthorhombic Alloy with Lamellar O Microstructures

Tribological behavior of the isothermally forged and heat-treated Ti-22Al-25Nb (at. %) orthorhombic alloy with lamellar O microstructures was investigated. The friction experiments using a tribometer (UMT-3 CETR) against Si3N4 and Al2O3 were conducted at the load of 10N from 20 to 750 °C and a constant speed of 0.188 m/s. The experiment results indicated that for the friction pair of Al2O3, the coefficient of friction (COF) was decreased from 0.906–0.359, and for the friction pair of Si3N4, COF was decreased from 0.784–0.457 as the friction temperature increased from room temperature to 750 °C. The wear rate of the alloy against Al2O3 is in the range of 2.63–8.15 × 10−4 mm3N−1m−1, the wear rate against Si3N4 is in the range of 2.44–5.83 × 10−4 mm3N−1m−1, respectively. The wear mechanisms of the alloy were changed from plastic deformation and ploughing at lower temperature (20–400 °C) to adhesive wear and oxidative mechanism at higher temperature (600 and 750 °C). The friction and wear behavior of the Al2O3 friction pair was comparable to that of the Si3N4 friction pair.

Microstructure, Tensile, and Creep Behaviors of Ti-22Al-25Nb (at.%) Orthorhombic Alloy with Equiaxed Microstructure

This article investigates the tensile and creep behaviors of the Ti-22Al-25Nb (at.%) alloy with equiaxed microstructure. The experimental results show that the equiaxed microstructures are formed by isothermal forging in the α2 + B2 + O phase region, and then heat treating in α2 + B2 + O and B2 + O phase regions. The equiaxed particles are determined by isothermal forging and solution heat treating, and the acicular O phase is obtained by adjusting the aging temperature. The strengths of the alloy are sensitive to the thickness of the secondary acicular O phase. Increase in aging temperature improves strength and reduces the ductility. Deformation of the alloy mainly depends on the volume fraction and deformability of the B2 phase. During the high-temperature tensile deformation, the flow stress decreases with the increasing deformation temperature and increases with the increasing strain rate. The microstructure obtained by higher aging temperature (HT-840) has better creep resistance, due to the coarsening of the secondary acicular O phase.