Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys

The most common additive manufacturing technologies are Electron Beam Melting and Selective Laser Sintering. It can be used with various materials including Titanium. Titanium alloys are also widely used in aircraft production. It is strong and stiff material however its processing using ordinary technology is generally complicated, time consuming and expensive. Oppositely for additive manufacturing, titanium is one of the most convenient to process. This opens new possibilities in aircraft production. This paper compares EBM and SLM technologies with the use of two titanium alloys (6-4 and 5-5-5-1). Titanium 6-4 is popular both in AM and conventional technics of production however its compression to 5-5-5-1 (which is not common in AM industry) broaden the range of AM available materials in terms of aircraft manufacturing. First part of the paper covers fundamental knowledge about AM industry, technology basics and general description, second covers list of materials which can be used in additive production, property comparison, potential application and printing possibilities. The latter part of the paper shows a few examples of demonstration part manufactured using AM technologies with general description.