Identification of an affordable and printable metastable β Ti alloy with outstanding deformation behaviour for use in laser powder bed fusion

Research on metastable β Ti alloys has recently shown the possibility to achieve outstanding ductility and work hardening behaviours by engineering the materials’ unique strain transformable attributes and responses to heat treatment. As quenching is central to the development of the metastable phase in these alloys, it is of interest to understand how these materials could be designed and developed for use in laser additive manufacturing where feedstocks experience numerous rapid thermal cycles. In this context, we first propose a material design framework to identify printable metastable Ti alloys for laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). We focus on the ternary Ti-Cr-Sn system for both its affordable character and interest in the biomedical field. The design framework combines criteria based on well-established empirical parameters that we use to compare stability of β phase and resistance to cracking during L-PBF, i.e. its printability. The design work is supported by series of microstructural investigations on arc-melted buttons of selected compositions. Using such methodology we identify Ti-7.5Cr-4.5Sn as strain transformable alloy of good printability and we then characterise this alloy in depth in a series of laser powder bed fusion experiments. Printability of this alloy is further demonstrated via printing experiments using a variety of processing conditions while the deformation character is studied using compressive testing. It was found that the identified Ti-7.5Cr-4.5Sn alloy can achieve a high compressive strain exceeding 70% thanks to deformation mechanisms that combine dislocation slip and {3 3 2}<1 1 3> twinning. This research paves the way towards the identification of novel Ti alloys for L-PBF beyond those used in the aerospace sector, opening the way for a broader field of applications.