Microstructural characterization and comparison of Ti-6Al-4V manufactured with different additive manufacturing processes

In this work, the microstructures of Ti-6Al-4V manufactured by different additive manufacturing (AM) processes have been characterized and compared. The microstructural features that were characterized are the α lath thickness, grain boundary α (GB-α) thickness, prior β grain size and α colony size. In addition, the microhardnesses were also measured and compared. The microstructure of shaped metal deposited (SMD) Ti-6Al-4V material showed the smallest variations in α lath size, whereas the material manufactured with laser metal wire deposition-0 (LMwD-0) showed the largest variation. The prior β grain size was found to be smaller in material manufactured with powder bed fusion (PBF) as compared with corresponding material manufactured with the directed energy deposition (DED) processes. Parallel bands were only observed in materials manufactured with DED processes while being non-present in material manufactured with PBF processes.