Page 7 - MSAM-3-3

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Multi-material structures of Ti6Al4V and

Ti6Al4V-B4C through directed energy
deposition-based additive manufacturing

Nathaniel W. Zuckschwerdt and Amit Bandyopadhyay*

W. M. Keck Biomedical Materials Research Lab, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering,
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-2920, USA

Abstract

The demand for advanced materials has driven innovation in titanium alloy
design, particularly in the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical sectors. Additive
manufacturing (AM) enables the construction of multi-material structures, offering
potential improvements in mechanical properties such as wear resistance and high-
temperature capabilities, thus extending the service life of components such as
Ti6Al4V. Directed energy deposition (DED)-based metal AM was used to manufacture
radial multi-material structures with a Ti6Al4V (Ti64) core and a Ti6Al4V-5 wt.% B4C
composite outer layer. X-ray diffraction analysis and microstructural observation
suggest that distinct B4C particles are strongly attached to the Ti6Al4V matrix. The
addition of B4C increased the average hardness from 313 HV for Ti6Al4V to 538 HV
for the composites. The addition of 5 wt.% B4C in Ti6Al4V increased the average
compressive yield strength (YS) to 1440 MPa from 972 MPa for the control Ti6Al4V,
*Corresponding author: i.e., >48% increase without any significant change in the elastic modulus. The radial
Amit Bandyopadhyay
(amitband@wsu.edu) multi-material structures did not exhibit any changes in the compressive modulus
compared to Ti6Al4V but displayed an increase in the average compressive YS to
Citation: Zuckschwerdt NW, 1422 MPa, i.e., >45% higher compared to Ti6Al4V. Microstructural characterization
Bandyopadhyay A. Multi-material
structures of Ti6Al4V and revealed a smooth transition from the pure Ti6Al4V at the core to the Ti64-B4C
Ti6Al4V-B4C through directed composite outer layer. No interfacial failure was observed during compressive
energy deposition-based additive deformation, indicating a strong metallurgical bonding during multi-material radial
manufacturing. Mater Sci Add
Manuf. 2024;3(3):3571. composite processing. Our results demonstrated that a significant improvement in
doi: 10.36922/msam.3571 mechanical properties can be achieved in one AM build operation through designing
Received: May 4, 2024 innovative multi-material structures using DED-based AM.
Accepted: May 29, 2024
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; 3D printing; Ti6Al4V; B4C; Multi-material structures
Published Online: July 9, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, The growing demand for advanced materials with tailored properties has driven
provided the original work is innovation in alloy design within various industries, including aerospace, automotive,
properly cited. and biomedical sectors. Among these materials, titanium (Ti) alloys have been
1,2
Publisher’s Note: AccScience studied rigorously due to their excellent strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance,
Publishing remains neutral with and high-temperature capabilities. With this, many avenues have been explored to
3-6
regard to jurisdictional claims in 7,8
published maps and institutional improve the capabilities of Ti using single alloy structures. Thus, to further improve
affiliations. the characteristics of the alloys, various methods for making structures out of the alloys

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/msam.3571