Corrosion behavior of AM-Ti-6Al-4V: a comparison between EBM and SLM

This work studies and compares the corrosion behavior of different planes of additively manufactured (AM) Ti-6Al-4V in 0.9 M NaCl solution. The samples were prepared by two different methods: electron beam melting (EBM) and selective laser melting (SLM). The obtained results indicate that the processing has a strong influence on the susceptibility to corrosion of AM Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Two interesting phenomena were observed: (a) the corrosion resistance of XY -planes of EBM and SLM Ti-6Al-4V is quite similar and is better than that of the XZ -planes; (b) the corrosion resistance of SLM Ti-6Al-4V alloy is slightly better than that of EBM Ti-6Al-4V in both XY - and XZ -planes. The effect of processing on the microstructure and corrosion resistance is discussed in detail.