EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Metal Additive manufacturing (AM) processes, such as Selective Laser Melting (SLM) or also called Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (LB-PBF), enable the fabrication of highly complex components from a 3-dimensional CAD model. Research is rapidly progressing in this field, thus ensuring application and promising achievements in the science and industry sector. Production of structures with unprecedented degrees of freedom represents an excellent condition for development of metallic implants for biomedical applications. Titanium and titanium alloys are most commonly used in biomedical engineering due to their good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. In this study, the effects of laser energy density on relative density, microstructure and on mechanical properties of commercial pure (CP) Titanium Grade 2 (TiGd2) produced by SLM are studied. The aim of the study is to develop AM process parameters that can achieve improved mechanical properties and performance of commercial pure TiGd2 compared to existing technologies for biomedical implants. Metallographic characterisation by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy as well as static mechanical tests were performed. A wide range variation of process parameters lead to an optimized process for this material with high density up to 99.97 %, acicular martensitic microstructure and increased mechanical strength.