Surface Hardness Modification of Selective Laser Melted Ti6Al4V Parts by Sliding Friction Diamond Burnishing

Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a frequently used additive manufacturing technology for creating metallic, especially Ti6Al4V parts. After the production by SLM usually postprocessing is necessary for several reasons. Here the sliding friction diamond burnishing is applied as postprocessing procedure. In this paper an experimental study of surface hardness improvement of selective laser melted Ti6Al4V ELI cylindrical parts is demonstrated. The surface is modified by sliding friction diamond burnishing as postprocessing machining. The design of experiment method was applied to investigate effect of five factors (two SLM and three machining parameters) on surface hardness modification. It is shown that both SLM and postprocessing factors makes significant effect to the surface hardness improvement, most important ones are laser power, laser scan speed during manufacturing, and the burnishing force as factor of postprocessing. Empirical formulas are fit to measurement data, and visualized by surface plots. Relationship between factors and the surface hardness improvement is strongly nonlinear. In the investigated parameter window burnishing force has always positive effect to surface hardness improvement. Electron microscopic investigations show that change in surface hardness can be related to four main morphological changes: compression of the surface by plastic deformation of protrusions, attenuation of valleys, formation of inner cavities and creation of small protrusions by diamond tool. This paper is an extended paper of a conference paper published in the proceedings book of the XXXI. International Welding Conference (Kecskemét, Hungary).