A comparative study of mechanical properties and machinability of wrought and additive manufactured (selective laser melting) titanium alloy-Ti-6Al-4V

In this paper, mechanical properties and machinability characteristics of additive manufactured titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V are studied and compared with conventionally produced wrought titanium alloy, Ti-6Al-4V. The difference in mechanical properties such as yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, micro hardness, percentage of elongation and their effect on machinability characteristics like cutting forces and surface roughness are studied. It was found that higher strength and hardness of SLM Ti-6Al-4V compared to wrought Ti-6Al-4V due to its peculiar acicular microstructure significantly affected the cutting forces and surface roughness. High cutting forces and low surface roughness was observed during machining of additive manufactured component compared to its wrought counterpart because of their difference in strength, hardness and ductility.