Research status and application of powder bed fusion additive manufactured titanium alloys

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) of titanium and its alloys, an additive manufacturing technique, is garnering significant attention in the aerospace and biomedical fields due to its advantages in customized manufacturing, cost savings, and optimization of time. However, when manufacturing titanium alloys using PBF technique, multiple factors such as low thermal conductivity, thermal accumulation, sensitivity to oxidation, and thermal stresses caused by rapid cooling led to issues like defects in the formed parts, structural heterogeneity, instability in performance, and inconsistent quality. Therefore, this paper investigates the principles of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) and Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF) within the PBF technique, discusses the characteristics of the microstructure, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and biocompatibility of titanium alloys produced by PBF, focuses on the mechanisms of defect formation and their impact during the forming process, and proposes methods to eliminate these defects. Finally, it looks forward to the future development of both technologies with the aim of fostering new research avenues in innovative titanium alloy additive manufacturing. © 2024 Central South University of Technology. All rights reserved.