LASER POWDER BED FUSION OF HIGH STIFFNESS TITANIUM BASED METAL MATRIX COMPOSITE FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

This study presents a production method of high stiffness Ti-TiC Metal Matrix Composite by Laser Powder Fusion. Crack and porosity free samples were printed with an improved Young’s modulus of up to 163 GPa showing a 39% increase compared to commercially pure Titanium produced by the same method. Microstructure shows both un-melted TiC particles and sub-stoichiometric TiC dendrites resulting from partial dissolution of TiC particles. The observed low C/Ti ratio leads to an effective reinforcement content more than twice the nominal one. Effects of post-treatments on microstructure and mechanical properties are presented.