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The aim of this work is to study the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure, phase transformations, shape memory characteristics and corrosion behaviour of laser deposited equiatomic NiTi alloy. Dense samples of NiTi alloy were fabricated using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™) with two different laser energy densities by varying the scan speed and laser power. These samples were annealed for 30 min at 500 °C and 1000 °C in flowing argon, followed by furnace-cooling to room temperature. The resulting microstructures and properties were compared with the corresponding as-deposited samples. Microstructural analysis after heat treatment showed needle-shape martensite in the samples processed at lower laser energy density of 20 J/mm 2 , and lenticular or plate-like martensite in the samples processed at 80 J/mm 2 . The XRD results revealed relatively high concentration of martensite (B19′) in heat-treated NiTi alloy compared to as-processed samples. Furthermore, the heat treatment decreased the forward and reverse transformation temperatures of NiTi alloy from 80 – 95 °C to 20–40 °C, presumably due to annihilation of thermally induced defects. Interestingly, the samples annealed at 500 °C showed a measurable increase of 1–2% in the shape memory recovery, from the net recovery of 8% exhibited by the as-processed NiTi alloy. The corrosion resistance of laser-processed NiTi alloy decreased upon annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™), a commercially available additive manufacturing technology, has been used to fabricate dense equiatomic NiTi alloy components. The primary aim of this work is to study the effect of laser power and scan speed on microstructure, phase constituents, hardness and corrosion behavior of laser processed NiTi alloy. The results showed retention of large amount of high-temperature austenite phase at room temperature due to high cooling rates associated with laser processing. The high amount of austenite in these samples increased the hardness. The grain size and corrosion resistance were found to increase with laser power. The surface energy of NiTi alloy, calculated using contact angles, decreased from 61 mN/m to 56 mN/m with increase in laser energy density from 20 J/mm 2 to 80 J/mm 2 . The decrease in surface energy shifted the corrosion potentials to nobler direction and decreased the corrosion current. Under present experimental conditions the laser power found to have strong influence on microstructure, phase constituents and corrosion resistance of NiTi alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]