This study explored the process-structure-property (PSP) relationships in Ti-6Al-4V alloys fabricated through direct energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing. A systematic investigation was conducted to clarify how process variables—specifically, manipulating the cooling rate and energy input by adjusting the laser power and scan speed during the DED process—influenced the phase fractions, pore structures, and the resultant mechanical properties of the samples under various processing conditions. Significant links were found between the controlled process parameters and the structural and mechanical characteristics of the produced alloys. The findings of this research provide foundational knowledge that will drive the development of more effective and precise control strategies in additive manufacturing, thereby improving the performance and reliability of produced materials. This, in turn, promises to make significant contributions to both the advancement of additive manufacturing technologies and their applications in critical sectors.

In order to predict the process window of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) for printing metallic components, the calculation of volumetric energy density (VED) has been widely calculated for controlling process parameters. However, because it is assumed that the process parameters contribute equally to heat input, the VED still has limitation for predicting the process window of LPBF-processed materials. In this study, an explainable machine learning (xML) approach was adopted to predict and understand the contribution of each process parameter to defect evolution in Ti alloys in the LPBF process. Various ML models were trained, and the Shapley additive explanation method was adopted to quantify the importance of each process parameter. This study can offer effective guidelines for fine-tuning process parameters to fabricate high-quality products using LPBF.

This study explores the profound impact of varying oxygen content on microstructural and mechanical properties in specimens HO and LO. The higher oxygen concentration in specimen HO is found to significantly influence alpha lath sizes, resulting in a size of 0.5-1 μm, contrasting with the 1-1.5 μm size observed in specimen LO. Pore fraction, governed by oxygen concentration, is high in specimen HO, registering a value of 0.11%, whereas specimen LO exhibits a lower pore fraction (0.02%). Varied pore types in each specimen further underscore the role of oxygen concentration in shaping microstructural morphology. Despite these microstructural variations, the average hardness remains consistent at ~370 HV. This study emphasizes the pivotal role of oxygen content in influencing microstructural features, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the intricate interplay between elemental composition and material properties.

Titanium constitutes approximately 60% of the weight of steel and exhibits strength comparable to steel's but with a higher strength-to-weight ratio. Titanium alloys possess excellent corrosion resistance due to a thin oxide layer at room temperature; however, their reactivity increases above 600°C, leading to oxidation and nitridation. Welding titanium alloys presents challenges such as porosity issues. Laser welding minimizes the heat-affected zone (HAZ) by emitting high output in a localized area for a short duration. This process forms a narrow and deep HAZ, reducing the deterioration of mechanical properties and decreasing the contact area with oxygen. In this study, fiber laser welding was conducted on 8.0mm thick Ti-6Al-4V alloy using the Bead On Plate (BOP) technique. A total of 25 welding conditions were experimented with to observe bead shapes. The results demonstrated successful penetration within the 0.792mm to 8.000mm range. It was concluded that this experimental approach can predict diverse welding conditions for Ti-6Al-4V alloys of various thicknesses.

The Ti-6Al-4V lattice structure is widely used in the aerospace industry owing to its high specific strength, specific stiffness, and energy absorption. The quality, performance, and surface roughness of the additively manufactured parts are significantly dependent on various process parameters. Therefore, it is important to study process parameter optimization for relative density and surface roughness control. Here, the part density and surface roughness are examined according to the hatching space, laser power, and scan rotation during laser-powder bed fusion (LPBF), and the optimal process parameters for LPBF are investigated. It has high density and low surface roughness in the specific process parameter ranges of hatching space (0.06–0.12 mm), laser power (225–325 W), and scan rotation (15°). In addition, to investigate the compressive behavior of the lattice structure, a finite element analysis is performed based on the homogenization method. Finite element analysis using the homogenization method indicates that the number of elements decreases from 437,710 to 27 and the analysis time decreases from 3,360 to 9 s. In addition, to verify the reliability of this method, stress–strain data from the compression test and analysis are compared.

Although the Ti–6Al–4V alloy has been used in the aircraft industry owing to its excellent mechanical properties and low density, the low formability of the alloy hinders broadening its applications. Recently, laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) has become a novel process for overcoming the limitations of the alloy (i.e., low formability), owing to the high degree of design freedom for the geometry of products having outstanding performance used in hightech applications. In this study, to investigate the effect of bulk shape on the microstructure and mechanical properties of L-PBFed Ti-6Al-4V alloys, two types of samples are fabricated using L-PBF: thick and thin samples. The thick sample exhibits lower strength and higher ductility than the thin sample owing to the larger grain size and lower residual dislocation density of the thick sample because of the heat input during the L-PBF process.

Powder flowability is critical in additive manufacturing processes, especially for laser powder bed fusion. Many powder features, such as powder size distribution, particle shape, surface roughness, and chemical composition, simultaneously affect the flow properties of a powder; however, the individual effect of each factor on powder flowability has not been comprehensively evaluated. In this study, the impact of particle shape (sphericity) on the rheological properties of Ti-6Al-4V powder is quantified using an FT4 powder rheometer. Dynamic image analysis is conducted on plasma-atomized (PA) and gas-atomized (GA) powders to evaluate their particle sphericity. PA and GA powders exhibit negligible differences in compressibility and permeability tests, but GA powder shows more cohesive behavior, especially in a dynamic state, because lower particle sphericity facilitates interaction between particles during the powder flow. These results provide guidelines for the manufacturing of advanced metal powders with excellent powder flowability for laser powder bed fusion.

The process optimization of directed energy deposition (DED) has become imperative in the manufacture of reliable products. However, an energy-density-based approach without a sufficient powder feed rate hinders the attainment of an appropriate processing window for DED-processed materials. Optimizing the processing of DEDprocessed Ti-6Al- 4V alloys using energy per unit area (Eeff) and powder deposition density (PDDeff) as parameters helps overcome this problem in the present work. The experimental results show a lack of fusion, complete melting, and overmelting regions, which can be differentiated using energy per unit mass as a measure. Moreover, the optimized processing window (Eeff = 44~47 J/mm2 and PDDeff = 0.002~0.0025 g/mm2) is located within the complete melting region. This result shows that the Eeff and PDDeff-based processing optimization methodology is effective for estimating the properties of DED-processed materials.

In the present work, Inconel 718 alloy is additively manufactured on the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, and a functionally graded material is built between Inconel 718 and Ti-6Al-4V alloys. The vanadium interlayer is applied to prevent the formation of detrimental intermetallic compounds between Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718 by direct joining. The additive manufacturing of Inconel 718 alloy is performed by changing the laser power and scan speed. The microstructures of the joint interface are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and micro X-ray diffraction. Additive manufacturing is successfully performed by changing the energy input. The micro Vickers hardness of the additive manufactured Inconel 718 dramatically increased owing to the presence of the Cr-oxide phase, which is formed by the difference in energy input.

Ti-6Al-4V alloy has a wide range of applications, ranging from turbine blades that require smooth surfaces for aerodynamic purposes to biomedical implants, where a certain surface roughness promotes biomedical compatibility. Therefore, it would be advantageous if the high volumetric density is maintained while controlling the surface roughness during the LPBF of Ti-6Al-4V. In this study, the volumetric energy density is varied by independently changing the laser power and scan speed to document the changes in the relative sample density and surface roughness. The results where the energy density is similar but the process parameters are different are compared. For comparable energy density but higher laser power and scan speed, the relative density remained similar at approximately 99%. However, the surface roughness varies, and the maximum increase rate is approximately 172%. To investigate the cause of the increased surface roughness, a nonlinear finite element heat transfer analysis is performed to compare the maximum temperature, cooling rate, and lifetime of the melt pool with different process parameters.

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is being considered as a technology to replace the conventional manufacturing process of titanium alloys. However, coarse β grains, which can extend through several deposited materials, result in strong textures and anisotropy. As a solution, we study the plastic deformation effects of ultrasonic needle peening (UNP) on the microstructure. UNP treated materials deform plastically and the dislocation density increases. Fine α+α' grains with low aspect ratio are observed in the UNP treated specimens. UNP treated WAAM Ti-6Al-4V alloys have higher strength and lower elongation than those characteristics of WAAM Ti-6Al-4V alloys. Due to UNP treatment, the z-axis directional specimens exhibit a greater effect of reducing elongation than do the x-axis directional specimens. The UNP treatment produces fine grains in proportion to the number of times UNP is performed, thereby increasing strength. UNP processes produce a large number of dislocations in the WAAM Ti-6Al-4V alloys, with the most dislocations being formed at the surface.

sesses the finishing capabilities for application to high-precision machining. Because Ti-6AL-4V (Eli) is widely used in applications where it is exposed to the human body, the industrial grinding oil that is commonly used in the magnetic abrasive finishing process was replaced by vegetable oils; the processing performances of these different grinding oils were compared and verified. The characteristics of magnetic abrasive finishing were also investigated according to the temperature of the material. The experimental results show that olive oil yields a surface roughness improvement of 87%. Also, in terms of the roundness and the amount of material removal, the performance was excellent. This demonstrates the possibility of replacing the conventional industrial oil for grinding. Furthermore, when olive oil was used at different temperatures, the finishing characteristics at room temperature were the most excellent. SEM and EDX analyses of the machined components (before and after processing) showed that the material composition was not changed. Additionally, the magnetic abrasive tool composition was not found on the surface of the finished samples. In conclusion, the possibility of using vegetable oil as the grinding oil for high-precision machining of Ti-6Al-4V (Eli) bars via a magnetic abrasive finishing process at room temperature conditions was verified.

Additively manufactured metallic components contain high surface roughness values, which lead to unsatisfactory high cycle fatigue resistance. In this study, high cycle fatigue properties of selective laser melted Ti-6Al- 4V alloy are investigated and the effect of dry-electropolishing, which does not cause weight loss, on the fatigue resistance is also examined. To reduce the internal defect in the as-built Ti-6Al-4V, first, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is conducted. Then, to improve the mechanical properties, solution treatment and aging are also implemented. Selective laser melting (SLM)-built Ti64 shows a primary α and secondary α+β lamellar structure. The sizes of secondary α and β are approximately 2 μm and 100 nm, respectively. On the other hand, surface roughness Ra values of before and after dry-electropolishing are 6.21 μm and 3.15 μm, respectively. This means that dry-electropolishing is effective in decreasing the surface roughness of selective laser melted Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The comparison of high cycle fatigue properties between before and after dry-electropolished samples shows that reduced surface roughness improves the fatigue limit from 150 MPa to 170 MPa. Correlations between surface roughness and high cycle fatigue properties are also discussed based on these findings.

The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of powder shape and densification mechanism on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V components. BE powders are uniaxially and isostatically pressed, and PA ones are injection molded because of their high strengths. The isostatically compacted samples exhibit a density of 80%, which is higher than those of other samples, because hydrostatic compression can lead to higher strain hardening. Owing to the higher green density, the density of BE-CS (97%) is found to be as high as that of other samples (BE-DS (95%) and P-S (94%)). Furthermore, we have found that BE powders can be consolidated by sintering densification and chemical homogenization, whereas PA ones can be consolidated only by simple densification. After sintering, BE-CS and P-S are hot isostatically pressed and BE-DS is hot forged to remove residual pores in the sintered samples. Apparent microstructural evolution is not observed in BE-CSH and P-SH. Moreover, BE-DSF exhibits significantly fine grains and high density of low-angle grain boundaries. Thus, these microstructures provide Ti-6Al-4V components with enhanced mechanical properties (tensile strength of 1179 MPa).

In the present work, a new hydrogen added argon heat treatment process that prevents the formation of hydrides and eliminates the dehydrogenation step, is developed. Dissolved hydrogen has a good effect on sintering properties such as oxidation resistance and density of greens. This process can also reduce costs and processing time. In the experiment, commercially available Ti-6Al-4V powders are used. The powders are annealed using tube furnace in an argon atmosphere at 700oC and 900oC for 120 min. Hydrogen was injected temporarily during argon annealing to dissolve hydrogen, and a dehydrogenation process was performed simultaneously under an argon-only atmosphere. Without hydride formation, hydrogen was dissolved in the Ti-6Al-4V powder by X-ray diffraction and gas analysis. Hydrogen is first solubilized on the beta phase and expanded the beta phases’ cell volume. TGA analysis was carried out to evaluate the oxidation resistance, and it is confirmed that hydrogen-dissolved Ti-6Al-4V powders improves oxidation resistance more than raw materials.

Additive manufacturing by electron beam melting is an affordable process for fabricating near net shaped parts of titanium and its alloys. 3D additive-manufactured parts have various kinds of voids, lack of fusion, etc., and they may affect crack initiation and propagation. Post process is necessary to eliminate or minimize these defects. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is the main method, which is expensive. The objective of this paper is to achieve an optimum and simple post heat treatment process without the HIP process. Various post heat treatments are conducted for the 3Dprinted Ti-6Al-4V specimen below and above the beta transus temperature (996oC). The as-fabricated EBM Ti-6Al-4V alloy has an α‘-martensite structure and transforms into the α+β duplex phase during the post heat treatment. The fatigue strength of the as-fabricated specimen is 400 MPa. The post heat treatment at 1000oC/30 min/AC increases the fatigue strength to 420 MPa. By post heat treatment, the interior pore size and the pore volume fraction are reduced and this can increase the fatigue limit.

The objective of this study is to reveal the sintering mechanism of mixed Ti-6Al-4V powders considering the densification and the homogenization between Ti and Al/V particles. It is found that the addition of master alloy particles into Ti enhances densification by the migration of Al into the Ti matrix prior to the self-diffusion of Ti. However, as Ti particles become coarser, sintering of the powders appears to be retarded due to slower inter-diffusion of the particles due to the reduced surface energies of Ti. Such phenomena are confirmed by a series of dilatometry tests and microstructural analyses in respect to the sintering temperature. Furthermore, the results are also consistent with the predicted activation energies for sintering. The energies are found to have decreased from 299.35 to 135.48 kJ·mol-1 by adding the Al/V particles because the activation energy for the diffusion of Al in α-Ti (77 kJ·mol-1) is much lower than that of the self-diffusion of α-Ti. The coarser Ti powders increase the energies from 135.48 to 181.16 kJ·mol-1 because the specific surface areas of Ti decrease.

This paper is concerned with a test method that can be used to investigate the parameters of the Johnson-Cook constitutive model. These parameters are essential for accurately analyzing material behavior under impact loading conditions in numerical simulation. Ti-6Al-4V alloy (HCP crytal structure) was used as a specimen for the experiments. In the 10−3-103/ s strain rate range, three types of experimental methods (convention, compression and tension) were employed to compare the differences using MTS-810, SHPB and SHTB. Finite element analysis results when applying these parameters were displayed along with the experiment results.

The effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of cast Ti-6%Al-4%V alloy was investigated. Heat treatment of cast Ti-6Al-4V alloy was conducted by solution treatment at 950 oC for 30 min; this was followed by water quenching and then aging at 550 oC for 1 to 1440 min. The highest hardness of the heat-treated specimens was obtained by solution treatment and subsequent aging for 5 min due to precipitates of fine α that formed from retained β phase. The tensile strength of this alloy increased without dramatic decrease of the ductility due to microstructural refinement resulting from the decomposition of α' martensite into fine α and β phases, and also due to the fine α phase formed from the retained β phase by aging treatment for 5 min. In addition, this strengthening might be caused by the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) effect, which is a strain-induced martensite transformation from the retained β phase during deformation, and which occurs even after aging treatment at 550 oC for 5 min.

The effects of processing parameters on the flow behavior and microstructures were investigated in hotcompression of powder metallurgy (P/M) Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The alloy was fabricated by a blended elemental (B/E)approach and it exhibited lamellar α+β microstructure. The hot compression tests were performed in the range of tem-perature 800-1000℃ with 50℃ intervals, strain rate 10−4-10 s−1, and strain up to 0.5. At 800-950℃, continuous flowsoftening after a peak stress was observed with strain rates lower than 0.1 s−1. At strain rates higher than 1 s−1, rapiddrop in flow stress with strain hardening or broad oscillations was recorded. The processing map of P/M Ti-6Al-4V wasdesigned based on the compression test and revealed the peak efficiency at 850℃ and 0.001 s−1. As the processing tem-perature increased, the volume fraction of β phase was increased. In addition, below 950℃, the globularization of phaseat the slower strain rate and kinking microstructures were found. Based on these data, the preferred working conditionof the alloy may be in the range of 850-950℃ and strain rate of 0.001-0.01 s−1.