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Titanium alloy extruded profiles with complex cross-section are usually used to manufacture special-shaped structural parts in the aviation industry. In this paper, a Ti-6Al-4 V profile with asymmetric Y shape was manufactured by a direct extrusion process. A comparative study was conducted at the different lubrication conditions, in which the different process deformation mechanisms, resulting microstructures, and mechanical properties of profiles have been investigated by finite element simulation and a series of experiments, i.e., scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). It was revealed that the metal flow is blocked at the narrow die orifice due to the deterioration of lubrication, resulting in the continuous shrinkage defect. The metal deformation coordination mechanism becomes gradually significant due to poor friction contact, which promotes the internal stress in the cross-sectional center to transfer outward to balance the friction at the edge of the orifice, resulting in the reduction of the effective strain in the center. The heat generated by friction weakens the heat exchange behavior between the metal and the die, which helps the profile retain a more uniform temperature field. In the sectional center of the profiles made from the two different lubrications, extrusion with good lubrication results in greater grain/colony refinement due to greater effective strains, and a slightly greater dislocation density was found due to the uniform deformation. The tensile tests revealed that compared with poor lubrication, due to the improvement of Hall–Petch strengthening and dislocation strengthening in the cross-sectional center with good lubrication, the variation range of yield strength and tensile strength is reduced to 11 MPa and 7 MPa, respectively, and the variation range of microhardness is reduced to 44 HV and 32 HV, respectively. The improvement of lubrication not only helps to reduce forming defects but also can obtain uniform mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of 3D printing in many different fields has become eminent. This paper aims to improve the mechanical properties of parts printed by fused deposition modeling technique. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) specimens are printed with custom printing parameters. These parameters give a tensile strength that is 86% of the injection- molded ABS strength, and give one of the best recorded results for 100% infill printed ABS tensile specimens. Furthermore, a post filling technique has been studied. Specimens are printed with inner voids and different densities using slicing software. Void shape is precisely selected to conform to the filling process. High-strength, low-cost thermoset resin is injected through specimens to fill those voids. A tensile test has been performed after the full curing of the resin. A morphology analysis is done. Using this technique strength to printed weight ratio is improved by 151% and the cost is reduced by 51%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additive manufacturing (AM) has various independent parameters that affect the mechanical properties and quality of the produced parts that are not linearly the function of each other. Process parameters in metal AM are very hard to control, analyse and optimise because they affect each other even though they can be independently changed. Changing process parameters in a wide range is not possible due to the formation of problems such as cracks, balling, unmelted powders, porosity and distortion. In this paper, a numerical model to predict the value of tensile strength of selective laser melting (SLM) Ti-6Al-4V parts and analyse the effect of process parameters on the results has been proposed. Taguchi L25 Design of Experiment (DOE) across 125 samples to create a comprehensive and general overview of influential parameters on the build process was investigated. Specifically, parameters included laser power, scan speed, hatch spacing, laser pattern angle and heat treatment (HT). To evaluate and analyse the build process according to established statistical variances, a minimum of five samples based on ASTM standard (for tensile test) were prepared. Heat treatment was added to the DOE to analyse the combined process and post-process effects. Results were compared (cross-validated) against existing values found in the literature and were found to effectively predict and explain the behaviour of tensile strength when changing process parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross wedge rolling (CWR) has unique advantages in the production of shaft preforms with refined grains and improved mechanical properties. Considering the sensitivity of Ti-6Al-4V(TC4) alloy to heat treatment temperature, the effect of different initial deformation temperatures (IDTs) on the forming quality, mechanical properties, and microstructure evolution of the TC4 alloy lower arm preforms in CWR forming was studied in this work. The flow stress curves of TC4 alloy in the two-phase region were obtained by isothermal compression experiments. The Arrhenius constitutive model was established and applied to DEFORM-3D finite element (FE) software to simulate the CWR forming process of TC4 alloy lower arm preforms. The forming quality of TC4 alloy parts was compared and analyzed by 3D FE simulation and experiment. And their mechanical properties at room temperature were tested by tensile test. The results showed that the rolled part has well forming quality (no steps and necking defects) and higher geometric dimension accuracy at the IDT 885°C. Moreover, with the increase of IDT, the radial force and torque in the rolling process decrease. In addition, there were no internal defects in the parts rolled by different IDTs, because the die gap reduces the number of alternating cycles of tensile-compressive stress in the rolled workpieces. Compared with the initial state, the microstructure was refined. When the IDT is 885 °C, the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS), and elongation (EI) of the parts were 987 MPa, 924 MPa, and 16.8%, respectively, which was able to ensure the mechanical performance requirements of the lower arm preform. The results provide theoretical guidance for the actual production of lower arm preform by CWR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]