Fabrication of Ti3Al-Based Intermetallic Alloy by Laser Powder Bed Fusion Using a Powder Mixture

Due to their light weight and outstanding mechanical properties at high temperatures, Ti3Al-based intermetallic alloys have driven increasing interest from both academia and industry; however, when additive manufacturing (AM) is applied to them, the outcome is hardly satisfying. In this work, we report a crack-free Ti3Al-based alloy fabrication by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) using a mixture of a commercial Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb powder and a pure Ti powder. With the aid of a high cooling rate during LPBF, the as-built sample shows a ductile beta phase with some partially-melted particles. After the heat treatment, partially-melted particles were dissolved, and the sample showed equiaxed alpha(2) precipitates in the beta matrix. The hardness was 515 +/- 38 HV in the as-built sample and 475 +/- 37 HV in the heat-treated sample. This study shows a novel strategy to fabricate crack-free Ti3Al-based alloy using LPBF from powder blends.