Effect of laser remelting on deposition quality, residual stress, microstructure, and mechanical property of selective laser melting processed Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy

Laser remelting (LR) is often used during selective laser melting (SLM) processes to improve the densification degree and top surface quality of the products. However, researches regarding its effects on side surface quality, residual stress, microstructure, and mechanical property are still quite lacking. The influence of the repeated usage of LR on a solidified layer is also not very clear. To address these issues, LR treatments with the cyclic numbers of 1-3 on every solidified layer have been employed during the SLM processes of a Ti-5Al-2.5Sn alloy in this study and their influences on deposition quality, residual stress, microstructure, and mechanical property were researched. The results first indicated that although the improvement in top surface quality and densification degree would be more and more notable with the increase of LR cycles, the side surface quality could not be improved through all the LR treatments. Then, it was shown by the hole-drilling tests on the surface centers of several 15 x 15 x 3 mm(3) thin-plate specimens that when 1 cycle of LR was conducted on every solidified layer, the principal residual stress at the hole bottom of the SLM sample could be far beyond that of the non-treated one. In contrast, when 2 or 3 cycles of LR were conducted, the measured principal residual stresses could be reduced to lower than that of the non-treated ones. It was also proved that unlike the non-treated sample which presented a martensite-dominated microstructure with a very weak texture, all the LR-treated samples exhibited two kinds of preferential orientations. Finally, tensile properties of the stress-relieved samples were tested and it was seen that under the combined influence of the densification and the microstructure factors, the elongations of the LR-treated samples became slightly higher than that of the non-treated one whereas the tensile strengths were nearly identical. In summary, this paper demonstrates that there is still limitation in using LR as an auxiliary process of the SLM production of titanium products. The possible increase in residual stress and the formation of strong textures should be particularly considered.