Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Additive manufacturing titanium powder oxygen variation within a single powder bed due to differences in powder size and oxygen content

Published

Author(s)

Nicholas Derimow, Elisabeth Mansfield, Jason Holm, Nik Hrabe

Abstract

Thermogravimetric analysis of Ti-6Al-4V powders (virgin Grade 5 and a once used Grade 23) was conducted up to 800 C in an industrial grade Ar environment. A standard starting particle size distribution (PSD) for electron beam powder-bed fusion (PBF-EB) additive manufacturing (AM) was divided into two smaller ranges based on the D50 to observe the effects of oxidation (e.g. mass gain) resulting from the differences in available, reactive surface area during testing. Significant mass gain was still recorded throughout the testing owing to titanium's extreme reactivity at elevated temperatures even with the Ar cover gas. The mass gain can be attributed to impurities in the purge gas and absorbed water in the powder. The smaller particle size distribution powders accumulated more % mass gain than the full range and larger PSD, likely due to the increased surface area per unit volume of the smaller PSD powder. The virgin Grade 5 powder generally accumulated more oxygen/mass gain than the once used Grade 23 powder, likely resulting from a previously existing thicker TiO2 shell on the once used Grade 23 powder. The results suggest that within a single AM PBF powder-bed, there may be varying levels of oxidation (both interstitial and oxide) depending on the particle size distribution and resulting surface area exposed to high temperatures for a given volume, and level of reuse (thickness of the oxide layer) on a per-particle basis if the batch had been blended.
Citation
Additive Manufacturing Letters

Keywords

Additive manufacturing, Ti-6Al-4V, Oxidation, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Powder Reuse

Citation

Derimow, N. , Mansfield, E. , Holm, J. and Hrabe, N. (2023), Additive manufacturing titanium powder oxygen variation within a single powder bed due to differences in powder size and oxygen content, Additive Manufacturing Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addlet.2023.100125, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=935927 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created January 31, 2023, Updated February 1, 2023