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Role of Stable Keyhole Mode in the Formability, Microstructure, and Mechanical Properties of High Layer Thickness in Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

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Abstract

In this study, we printed high layer thickness Ti-6Al-4V parts using a stable keyhole melt pool mode. Firstly, we performed the single tracks experiments to obtain the size of the melt pool at different scanning speeds. Results demonstrated that the depths of the molten pools are high which makes it possible to improve the building rate by increasing layer thickness. Under the conditions of 170 W laser power, 60 μm layer thickness, and a scanning speed of 900 mm/s, the building rate, relative density, microhardness, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS), and elongations are 424 HV, 3.78 mm3/s, 99.4%, 1283 MPa, and 1202 MPa, 7.8%, respectively. The results showed that employing a stable keyhole mode enables the formation of high layer thickness samples which had the advantage of both high relative density and exceptional mechanical properties.

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Data Availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Major Project (202202AG050007), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51961017), and the Yunnan Provincial Key Project of Basic Research (202101AS070017). Special thanks to the Center for Analysis and Testing of Kunming University of Science and Technology for instrumental analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650000, China

    Bei Wang, Zhenhua Li, Zhijun Zhang, Siyue Fan, Chengjian Wang, Cheng Wang & Ning Wang

  2. Center for Technology of Advanced Metallic Solidification Forming and Equipment, National-Local Joint Engineering Research, Kunming, 650000, China

    Bei Wang, Zhenhua Li, Zhijun Zhang, Xuejiao Wang, Siyue Fan, Chengjian Wang, Cheng Wang & Ning Wang

  3. Faculty of Mechatronics Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650000, China

    Xuejiao Wang

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  1. Bei Wang
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Wang, B., Li, Z., Zhang, Z. et al. Role of Stable Keyhole Mode in the Formability, Microstructure, and Mechanical Properties of High Layer Thickness in Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy. J. of Materi Eng and Perform (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-024-09377-8

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