The use of HDH titanium alloy powder for additive manufacturing application

Abstract

Spherical powder with excellent fluidity is generally considered to be a suitable raw material powder for additive manufacturing (AM), as opposed to irregularly shaped powder produced by pulverization. The authors have investigated the possibility of obtaining a mixed powder comprising irregularly shaped Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder and spherical Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder. The powders were produced by the hydride-dehydride process and the plasma atomization process, respectively. The fluidity of the mixed powder was confirmed to be an acceptable level for AM and the chemical composition and tensile properties of the AM product using the mixed powder were same as those of the AM product using 100% spherical powder.