Recyclability Study on Inconel 718 and Ti-6Al-4V Powders for Use in Electron Beam Melting

Powder bed-based additive manufacturing technologies offer a big advantage in terms of reusability of the powders over multiple cycles that result in cost savings. However, currently there are no standards to determine the factors that govern the powder reuse times. This work presents the results from a recyclability study conducted on Inconel 718 and Ti-6Al-4V powders. It has been found that the Inconel 718 powders are chemically stable over a large number of cycles and their reuse time is limited by physical characteristics of powders such as flowability. Ti-6Al-4V, on the other hand, finds its reuse time governed by the oxygen pick up that occurs during and in between build cycles. The detailed results have been presented.