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Thermal Stability of Nanocrystals in SLM-printed Ti64 Alloy Treated by Laser Shock Peening and Plasma Nitriding

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Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of a plasma nitriding (PN) process on the thermal stability of nanocrystalline on the surface of Ti-6Al-4 V (Ti64) titanium alloy, which is printed by selective laser melting (SLM) and subsequently treated by laser shock peening (LSP). The microstructure evolution of SLM-Ti64 titanium alloy treated sequentially by LSP and PN at different annealing temperatures was observed by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope. The results show that the average size of SLM-Ti64 alloy treated by LSP is 49.7 nm, even at 600 °C nanocrystals maintain thermal stability, which is attributed to the strong hinder effect of high-density dislocations on grain boundary migration. The microstructural characterization indicates that the nitrided layer is mainly composed of nanostructured TiN phase by PN at 600 °C, and the thermal stability of nanocrystals was further increased to 700 °C compared without nitriding, which is attributed to dispersed nanoscale TiN precipitates hindering the migration of grain boundaries by Zener pinning effect. Our work provides a method of preventing nanocrystalline coarsening in Ti64 alloy by PN.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Class III Peak Discipline of Shanghai—Materials Science and Engineering (High-Energy Beam Intelligent Processing and Green Manufacturing). The authors thank Fei Wang for preparing the experimental samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of High-Temperature Alloy Precision Forming, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Jun Wang, Bo He, Liang Lan & Shuang Gao

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Jun Wang, Bo He, Liang Lan & Shuang Gao

  3. School of Artificial Intelligence, Shanghai Normal University TIANHUA College, Shanghai, 201815, China

    Caiyan Liu

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Yonghua Rong

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  1. Jun Wang
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Wang, J., He, B., Liu, C. et al. Thermal Stability of Nanocrystals in SLM-printed Ti64 Alloy Treated by Laser Shock Peening and Plasma Nitriding. Met. Mater. Int. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-024-01671-3

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