Additive layer manufacturing of titanium-aluminum-vanadium by electron beam melting from powder particles: Solid, mesh and foam components study

Additive Manufacturing by Electron Beam Melting Rapid Manufacturing is a technology that consists of the fabrication of a CAD design by melting powder particles in a layer by layer fashion. In this study, Ti-6Al-4V has been utilized to fabricate solid, mesh and foam components by EBM technologies. Powder analysis of Ti-6Al-4V was performed to obtain a better understanding of the porosity obtained by the system. After proper optimization of the machine, and porosity control, microstructural analysis was performed to the components already mentioned and correlated by transmission electron microscopy. Besides the microstructural analysis, tensile and hardness testing was performed to the components. Variations in density, and/or wall thickness of the components result in a variance in cooling rates that provide differences in microstructure and hardness discussed in this thesis. As a result, and mainly due to the astonishing properties obtained by these components a wide variety of fields can be benefited from these technologies.