Predictive models for physical and mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V produced by Selective Laser Melting

The properties of parts produced by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are highly influenced by the processing parameters. The calculation of the energy density is not enough for justifying the mechanical and physical properties, and understand the microstructures of Ti6Al4V samples produced by SLM. In fact, samples produced with the same energy density, but with different processing parameters, present distinct properties. In this sense, it is necessary to assess the influence of processing parameters on SLM fabrication, as isolated parameters but also their interactions. This work presents a study on the influence of several SLM processing parameters (laser power, scan speed and scan spacing) on density, hardness and shear strength of Ti6Al4V samples. The influence of these processing parameters on the final properties of SLM parts was obtained by using statistical analysis. Additionality, with the drive of finding the significant main factors and their interactions, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The influence of the above mentioned processing parameters on shear strength, hardness and density resulted in three models that can be used as predictive design tools for Ti6Al4V parts produced by SLM technology. Moreover, a study on the microstructures of the Ti6Al4V samples was performed and correlated with the obtained models. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.