D. Cormier, R. Benson, R. Sanwald, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Tensile specimens of Ti6Al4V with a rectangular cross sectional gauge area were grown from metal alloy powder using an Arcam electron beam melting system. The three different faces of the rectangular tensile specimens were the three different, orthogonal growth planes for different individual specimens. These as-grown specimens contained columnar grains with the columnar grain lengths approximately normal to the growth interface for all three different, growth planes. The formation of the columnar grain structure will be discussed in terms of the growth process. An acicular α(HCP) phase was observed inside the columnar grains of the as-grown Ti6Al4V alloy with small β(BCC) phase particles between the acicular α phase entities and a few small β phase particles randomly distributed in the two phase mixture. The average values of the ultimate tensile strengths, the yield strengths, and the percent elongations of the as-grown, Ti6Al4V alloy for the three individual growth planes compared favorably to the requirements from three different Society of Automotive Engineers Aerospace Materials Specifications. The average values of the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and percent elongation obtained by averaging the values of these three, tensile parameters for the three, different growth planes compared favorably to the available, matching tensile parameters for Ti6Al4V alloys from the literature fabricated by other selected types of processes.
Summary: This talk presents mechanical properties, microstructural analysis for Ti-6Al-4V coupons fabricated via Arcam's Electron Beam Melting (EBM) process.
