An experimental study of Ti-6Al-4V powder reactivity in gaseous environment: Application to additive manufacturing

Abstract

Currently, one of the current issues related to the additive manufacturing is the change in the properties of Ti-6Al-4V powder during this process. This change has been attributed to the interaction of this powder with its gaseous environment that can contain a small quantity of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and/or water vapour. Therefore, the aim of this work is to study the effect of oxygen and nitrogen partial pressure as well as the effect of the temperature on the corrosion of the Ti-6Al-4V powder. The results show that the temperature and the oxygen partial pressure have an effect on the corrosion kinetics, which is not the case of nitrogen partial pressure. This study is a first step towards a better understanding of the ageing of Ti-6Al-4V powder during additive manufacturing processes.