Cost Effective Ti-6Al-4V Powder for Electron Beam Melting

The powder bed electron beam melting (EBM) technology by Arcam has become widely recognized for its successful fabrication of fully dense components from different powder materials such as Co-Cr-Mo, Ti-6Al-4V and Ti grade 2.  Simultaneously, titanium costs have increased due to high demand from the medical and aerospace industries.  As a result, our research group is exploring the feasibility of using alternative sources of titanium powders in the EBM system, and in this project, we investigated Hydride-Dehydride (HDH)-manufactured Ti-6Al-4V powder.  The HDH powder manufacturing process has been tested and used in industries for cost effective near net-shape products for over 20 years.  The process consists of performing a reversible reaction on the material by hydrating titanium at elevated temperatures for long periods of time allowing the brittle phase of the titanium to be crushed and milled for finer powder size.  The result is an angular shaped (non-spherical) powder that can be used successfully for fabrication in the EBM technology.  The primary objective of this research was to demonstrate that HDH powder can be mixed with spherical powder without compromising microstructural and mechanical properties on fully dense components manufactured by the Arcam EBM system.  Initially, several powder analyses were performed on several HDH/spherical powder mixed ratios including particle microstructure, size distribution, packing density and flowability. Simple geometries where made with optimum HDH/spherical powder ratios, the fully dense parts obtained were tested for microstructural characterization and micro hardness, while providing potential cost savings without compromising material’s properties.