Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace Titanium Alloys: Opportunities and Challenges
CHEN Wei1,2, LI Zhiqiang2
1. Materials Research Department, AVIC Manufacturing Technology Institute, Beijing 100024, China;
2. Key Laboratory of Power Beam Processing, Beijing 100024, China
The history and current status of additive manufacturing for the aerospace titanium industry is reviewed. The build efficiency, dimension capability, component complexity, buy-to-fly ratio, and surface quality of 5 additive manufacturing methods based on direct energy deposition and powder bed fusion are compared. Also, the effect of powder bed fusion technology on designing lightweight structure and low-cost manufacturing process is discussed. Taking Ti-6Al-4V as an example, how the physical processes inside melt pool affects the formation of columnar grains and mechanical anisotropy is investigated. Some results of process monitoring and quality control, as well as the current standard for material,processing, and detection are presented. Finally, the cost breakdown and model are introduced to explain the component features that are suitable for additive manufacturing. The future direction of aerospace additive manufacturing for titanium alloys is discussed.