This paper is an up-date of a paper published in Metal Powder Report almost two years ago (Dutta and (Sam) Froes, 2017). The present paper presents the various methods which have been developed for the production of AM components, emphasizing those which have been used for titanium parts. This is followed by a presentation of recently developed processes for the production of spherical powder feed-stock for Additive Manufacturing including an innovative low cost non-melt approach. Consideration is then given to the effects of surface roughness and defects of AM parts. A summary of some of the titanium parts which have been fabricated by AM in the past few years in a variety of segments of the economy is then discussed.
In a prior paper on the Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys the basics of the process were described and components fabricated along with microstructures, mechanical properties and cost considerations were presented. In the present paper we provide an up-date on the previous manuscript with emphasis on available feed-stock (particularly powder), a discussion of the various AM techniques available in general with an emphasis on those which have been used with Titanium Alloys. This is followed by a discussion of Surface Roughness and Defects of the AM Parts subjects which were not covered in the previous paper. Finally this paper contains a summary of some of the titanium parts which have been fabricated by AM in the past few years in a variety of segments of the economy. This previous paper also included a comprehensive listing of the pertinent literature.
This article appeared in the Nov/Dec issue of Metal Powder Report.