Search

The present study focuses on understanding the effect of scan strategy on the microstructure and mechanical properties of LDED fabricated IN718 built at optimized process conditions from single track analysis. Initially, single track studies were conducted by varying laser power, scan speed, and feed rate (3 levels) to optimize process parameters for bulk deposition. Based on the dilution, aspect ratio, track continuity and melt pool shape, best process parameter were chosen for depositing bulk structures. Bulk rectangular specimens were fabricated using the LDED process for different infill rotation (0°, 45°, 67°, and 90°) at optimized process conditions. Infill rotation did not show any significant change in the density of the samples. However, grain size measurement from EBSD and SEM micrographs revealed a substantial difference in grain size between samples without infill rotation (0°) and samples with infill rotation (45°, 67°, and 90°). XRD and EDS mapping revealed higher the formation of secondary laves phases with infill rotation as a result of higher cooling rate. Similarly, melt pool shape and arrangement showed significant variation with different infill angles. Samples with 0° and 90° infill rotation exhibited strong crystallographic texture along the build direction. There was a significant variation in the microhardness and tensile strength of the build with variation in infill rotation. This variation in mechanical properties were attributed to grain size, LAGB's fraction, secondary phases, and crystallographic texture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]