Research on Process Parameters of Electron Beam Rapid Prototyping for Titanium Alloy

This paper applied different process parameters for the study of electron beam rapid prototyping TC18 titanium alloy sheet and carried out the testing and comparative analysis of mechanical properties,high temperature oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance for the alloy.The results show that,except for the scanning time,the factors of beam current,focusing current,accelerating voltage and the thickness of each metal powder layer have major impacts on the mechanical properties,high temperature oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance of the TC18 titanium alloy.Both the tensile strength and impact ductility of TC18 titanium alloy increase and then decrease with the enhancement of any one of the three parameters:beam current from 3 mA to 9 mA,focusing current from 550 mA to 650 mA,thickness of each metal powder layer from 0.2 mm to 1.0 mm.The optimal process parameters are the beam current of 6 mA,focusing current of 600 mA,scanning time of 2 s,accelerating voltage of 55 kV and the thickness of each metal powder layer of 0.6 mm.