Research on Laser Direct Deposition Process of Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Laser direct deposition (LDD) of metallic components is an advanced technology of combining CAD/CAM (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing), high power laser, and rapid prototyping. This technology uses laser beam to melt the powders fed coaxially into the molten pool by the laser beam to fabricate fully dense metallic components. The present article mainly studies the LDD of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, which can be used to fabricate aircraft components. The mechanical properties of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, fabricated by LDD, are obtained using the tension test, and the oxygen content of used powders and deposited specimens are measured. In the present article, it can be seen that the mechanical properties obtained using this method are higher than the ones obtained by casting, and equal to those got by wrought anneal. One aircraft part has been made using the LDD process. Because of this aircraft part, with sophisticated shape, the effect of the laser scanning track on the internal soundness of the deposited part was discussed.