Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Parts Using 3D Plasma Metal Deposition

Additive manufacturing of titanium components offers several advantages compared to conventional production technologies such as higher material utilization efficiency and increased geometric possibilities. In comparison to laser powder bed processes, arc-based additive manufacturing processes have the additional advantage of an almost unlimited assembly space, higher deposition rates and an improved utilisation factor of raw materials. Disadvantages of wire-based methods are the restricted availability of different types of wire consumables, the fact that the wire feed rate is directly coupled to the heat input and the lack of possibility to create multi-material structures in-situ. Within this work, the 3D Plasma Metal Deposition (3DPMD) method, based on a plasma powder deposition process is introduced. 3DPMD has some special advantages compared to the established plasma powder process and other additive processes. For example, up to four powders, which can differ in terms of material and powder fraction, can be mixed within one layer. This allows a targeted adaption of local properties (microstructure, mechanical properties, wear resistance, porosity, etc.) to the targeted load type and level. The tailored introduction of reinforcement particles, e.g. tungsten or titanium carbides, into the component is a simple example. The study aims to demonstrate the suitability of the 3DPMD for the production of titanium components in layer-by-layer design. Various demonstrators are prepared and analysed. The microstructures, the porosity and the hardness values of the different structures are analysed. In summary, 3DPMD offers the possibility to produce titanium structures with and without reinforcement particles. Using automated routines, it is possible to generate metallic structures directly from the CAD drawings using welding robots. Microstructures and properties are directly related to the process and, therefore, structure-process-property relationships are discussed within this work.