Microstructural and Mechanical Analysis of High-Performance Parts Produced by Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of Powder LMD on Forged Base Components

Abstract:

Ti-6Al-4V is used as a high-performance material in many industries (mainly automotive and aerospace, but also the medical industry) and traditionally produced by hot forging, with subsequent extensive post-processing and machining, leading to a material yield far from 100 % [1]. New production chains, such as additive manufacturing, enable the near net shape production of high-performance parts, however, still with long production cycles and high manufacturing costs, especially for larger parts [2]. Therefore, an efficient and feasible production is often limited to low quantities and/or small pieces. In the present study, we propose a hybrid manufacturing route, combining additive laser metal deposition (powder LMD) on hot forged base components, enhancing material efficiency, but still enabling the production of industrial quantities. Primary investigations on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the material show results similar to conventional hot forged material, but reduce the number of processing steps and increase the material yield.In more detail, the relationship between the primary beta grain size and the secondary alpha phase characteristics was investigated and moreover, related to the cooling history of the material. Furthermore, the influence of the microstructure and phase characteristics on the mechanical properties of the material was analyzed. For the determination of the primary beta grain size, the programming language MATLAB as well as its integrated open-source toolbox MTEX were used, where a GUI has been developed for the reconstruction of the primary beta grain orientations and sizes from recorded EBSD data of the secondary alpha (Ti) phase, using the Burger’s orientation relationship (BOR, [3-7]).

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 1161)
• Pages: 85-93
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1161.85
• Online since: March 2021
• Authors: Susanne Hemes*, Waldemar Koch, Rebar Hama-Saleh, Irina Sizova, Frank Meiners, Michael Mathes, Markus Bambach, Andreas Weisheit, Johannes Henrich Schleifenbaum
• Keywords: Forging, Hybrid Additive Manufacturing, Mechanical Properties, Microstructure, Phase Reconstruction, Powder LMD, Ti64

References

[1] S. Liu, Y.C. Shin, Additive manufacturing of Ti6Al4V alloy: A review, Materials and Design 164 (2019) 107552.

DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2018.107552

[2] Q. Liu, Y. Wang, H. Zheng, K. Tang, L. Ding, H. Li, S. Gong, Microstructure and mechanical properties of LMD-SLM hybrid forming of Ti6Al4V alloy, Material Science & Engineering A 660 (2016) 24-33.

DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2016.02.069

[3] W.G. Burgers, On the process of transition of the cubic-body-centred modification into the hexagonal-closed-packed modification of zirconium, Physica I (36) (1934) 561-586.

DOI: 10.1016/s0031-8914(34)80244-3

[4] M. Humbert, F. Wagner, H. Moustahfid, C. Esling, Determination of the orientation of a parent β grain from the orientations of the inherited α-plates in the phase transformation from body-centred cubic to hexagonal closed packed, Journal of Applied Crystallography 28 (1995) 571-576.

DOI: 10.1107/s0021889895004067

[5] M. Simonelli, Y.Y. Tse, C. Tuck, On the texture formation of selective laser melted Ti-6Al-4V, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A 45A (2014), 2863-2872.

DOI: 10.1007/s11661-014-2218-0

[6] H. Beladi, Q. Chao, G.S. Rohrer, Variant selection and intervariant crystallographic planes distribution in martensite in a Ti-6Al-4V alloy, Acta Materialia 80 (2014), 478-489.

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2014.06.064

[7] G.M. Ter Haar, Selective laser melting-produced Ti6Al4V: Influence of annealing strategies on crystallographic microstructure and tensile behavior, Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering Mechanical in the Faculty of Engineering at Stellenbosch University (2017).

[8] R.R. Boyer, An overview on the use of titanium in the aerospace industry, Material Science Engineering: A 213, 1996, 103-114.

[9] M. Bambach, A. Sviridov, A. Weisheit, J. Schleifenbaum, Case studies on local reinforcement of sheet metal components by laser additive manufacturing, Metals 7 (2017), 113.

DOI: 10.3390/met7040113

[10] M. Merklein, P. Dubjella, A. Schaub, L. Butzhammer, M. Schmidt, Interaction of additive manufacturing and forming, Proceedings of the 6th international conference on additive technologies (2016) 309-316.

[11] M. Merklein, D. Junker, A. Schaub, F. Neubauer, Hybrid additive manufacturing technologies – an analysis regarding potentials and applications, Physics Procedia 83 (2016) 549-559.

DOI: 10.1016/j.phpro.2016.08.057

[12] F. Meiners, P. Jürgens, S. Hemes, M. Mathes, I. Sizova, M. Bambach, R. Hama-Saleh, A. Weisheit, New Hybrid Manufacturing Routes Combining Forging and Additive Manufacturing to Efficiently Produce High Performance Components from Ti-6Al-4V, Procedia Manufacturing (2019) submitted.

DOI: 10.1016/j.promfg.2020.04.215

[13] G. Lütjering, Influence of processing on microstructure and mechanical properties of (α + β) titanium alloys. Materials Science and Engineering A243 (1998) 32-45.

DOI: 10.1016/s0921-5093(97)00778-8

[14] F.J. Gil, M.P. Ginebra, J.M. Manero, J.A. Planell, Formation of alpha-Widmanstätten structure: effects of grain size and cooling rate on the Widmanstätten morphologies and on the mechanical properties in Ti6Al4V alloy, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 329 (2001) 142-152.

DOI: 10.1016/s0925-8388(01)01571-7

[15] N. Kherrouba, M. Bouabdallah, R. Badji, D. Carron, Beta to alpha transformation kinetics and microstructure of Ti-6Al-4V alloy during continuous cooling, Materials Chemistry and Physics 181 (2016) 462-469.

DOI: 10.1016/j.matchemphys.2016.06.082

[16] M. Humbert, H. Moustahfid, F. Wagner, M.J. Philippe, Evaluation of the high temperature texture of the β-phase of a TA6V sample from the individual orientations of grains of the low temperature α phase, Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia 30 (1994) 377-382.

DOI: 10.1016/0956-716x(94)90392-1

[17] I. Weiss, F.H. Froes, D. Eylon, G.E. Welsch, Modification of Alpha Morphology in Ti-6Al-4V by Thermomechanical Processing, Metallurgical Transactions A (17A) (1986) 1935-1947.

DOI: 10.1007/bf02644991

[18] S.L. Semiatin, T.R. Bieler, The effect of alpha platelet thickness on plastic flow during hot working of Ti-6Al-4V with a transformed microstructure, Acta materialia 49 (2001) 3565-3573.

DOI: 10.1016/s1359-6454(01)00236-1

[19] S.L. Semiatin, P.N. Fagin, M.G. Glavicic, I.M. Sukonnik, O.M. Ivasishin, Influence on texture on beta grain growth during continuous annealing of Ti-6Al-4V, Materials Science and Engineering A299 (2001) 225-234.

DOI: 10.1016/s0921-5093(00)01371-x

[20] O.M. Ivasishin, S.L. Semiatin, P.E. Markovsky, S.V. Shevchenko, S.V. Ulshin, Grain growth and texture evolution in Ti-6Al-4V during beta annealing under continuous heating conditions, Materials and Science Engineering A337 (2002) 88-96.

DOI: 10.1016/s0921-5093(01)01990-6

[21] H.J. Bunge, Texture Analysis in Material Science, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1969 (1982), 614 pp. eBook ISBN: 9781483278391.

[22] B.J Hayes, B.W. Martin, B. Welk, S.J. Kuhr, T.K. Ales, D.A. Brice, I. Ghamarian, A.H. Baker, C.V. Haden, D.G. Harlow, H.L. Fraser, P.C. Collins, Predicting tensile properties of Ti-6Al-4V produced via directed energy deposition, Acta Materialia 133 (2017) 120-133.

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2017.05.025

[23] B.E. Carroll, T.A. Palmer, A.M. Beese, Anisotropic tensile behavior of Ti-6Al-4V components fabricated with directed energy deposition additive manufacturing, Acta Materialia 87 (2015) 309-320.

DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2014.12.054

[24] Y. Xu, Y. Lu, K.L. Sundberg, J. Liang, R.D. Sisson, Effect of annealing treatments on the microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of direct metal laser sintered Ti-6Al-4V, Journal of Materials Engineering Performance 26 (2017) 2572-2582.

DOI: 10.1007/s11665-017-2710-y