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Surface and property characterization of selective laser-melted Ti-6Al-4V alloy after laser polishing

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Abstract

Laser polishing, as a post-processing or in situ precision-smoothing technology, is a surface modification method aimed at improving the rough surface and properties of additive manufactured components. In this paper, the effect of in situ laser polishing on the surface modification of Ti-6Al-4V alloy prepared by selective laser melting (SLM) has been investigated. The optimum process parameters were selected for experiments in the range of high power and low power, respectively. The results showed that the surface roughness was reduced by 81.8% (from 6.38 to 1.16 µm Sa) after laser polishing, which significantly improved the surface quality of SLM parts. The number of pores in the polished layer and heat-affected zone was greatly reduced, and the depth of remelted layer was more than 400 µm, which made the microhardness and wear resistance of the laser polished parts obviously increased compared with the as-printed ones. In addition, the reduction of microdefects (adhesive particles, partially melted powders, and pores) on polished surface and the grain refinement made the laser polished parts exhibit stronger corrosion resistance. Because of these enhancements, in situ laser polishing represents a suitable method to improve surface properties of SLM parts, and provides the feasibility and possibility for the integrated processing of 3D printing and laser polishing.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Not applicable.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U20A20293).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Jiejing Li, Huayang Wu, Haixu Liu & Dunwen Zuo

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  1. Jiejing Li
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  2. Huayang Wu
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  3. Haixu Liu
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  4. Dunwen Zuo
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jiejing Li, Huayang Wu, Haixu Liu, and Dunwen Zuo. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jiejing Li, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dunwen Zuo.

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Li, J., Wu, H., Liu, H. et al. Surface and property characterization of selective laser-melted Ti-6Al-4V alloy after laser polishing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 128, 703–714 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11880-6

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