Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V components fabricated by laser micro cladding deposition

Laser micro cladding deposition manufacturing(Ll CDM) is a newly developed rapid manufacturing method for metals.The Ll CDM technology adopts a novel powder feeding method based on alternating friction and inertia force, and this powder feeding method can effectively improve the accuracy and orientation of the powder injection, resulting in a smaller molten pool size and a higher cooling rate of liquid metal.Therefore, the components fabricated by Ll CDM could obtain the finer microstructures and the improved mechanical properties.It is found that the components fabricated by Ll CDM are fully dense free of cracks or pores and exhibit columnar prior b grains with a finer acicular a0 phase microstructure.The microhardness(HV0.2) of the thin-wall component is HV 400–HV 500 in the majority part of the cross section and can reach about HV 850 in the top region.The ultimate tensile strength(UTS) and elongation show insignificant dependence on the testing directions of the tensilespecimens.The UTS is between 1,002 and 1,100 MPa, and the elongation is between 10.0 % and 14.7 %.

Influence of α/β interface phase on the tensile properties of laser cladding deposited Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy

Laser cladding deposited Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy universally shows more complex microstructures,each of which has significant effect on mechanical properties. Of particular α/β interface phase has been observed in this paper under certain conditions. It demonstrates that the influence of the α/β interface phase on the tensile properties is closely associated with dislocations and twin substructure through comparison experiments. The results show that the α/β interface phase hinders dislocation motion and decreases effective slip length. In addition, the twin substructure has been activated in the α/β interface phase during tensile process and has acted somehow like grain boundaries. Therefore, the strength and the work-hardening rate of the laser cladding deposited Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy have been significantly improved due to the dynamic Hall-Petch effect. Besides, the α/β interface phase leads to more uniform dislocations distribution, which implies that relative lower local concentrated stress will be produced along the α/β interface phase or colony boundary after the same amount of plastic deformation. Moreover,the twinning-induced plasticity effects in the α/β interface phase further increase the plastic deformation capacity. These results in higher elongation for the laser cladding deposited Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.It can be concluded that the current work suggests an effective method to simultaneously improve the strength and plasticity of laser cladding deposited Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy based on the α/β interface phase.