Role of laser powder bed fusion process parameters in crystallographic texture of additive manufactured Nb–48Ti alloy

Additive manufacturing, known as “3D printing”, is a set of manufacturing technologies that can build parts with complex geometries in a process by adding layers of powder material. The laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process is characterized by selectively melting layers of particulate material at a micrometer scale in repetitive patterns. This technology is expected to improve Young's modulus of metallic biomaterials, by controlling the microstructure and crystallographic texture– influenced by the laser power and scanning speed parameters which promote an oriented heat extraction. Implant materials should have low Young's modulus, to avoid a large mismatch with that of the bones. This work investigates the role of the laser power and scanning speed on microstructure and crystallographic texture formation of the Nb–48Ti alloy, fabricated by laser powder bed fusion process, using pre-alloyed plasma atomized powder. The microstructure was characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), backscattered electron diffraction technique (EBSD) for crystallographic texture, and Young's modulus was obtained indirectly via EBSD data. The microstructure showed a cellular dendritic solidification morphology formed by epitaxy at the edge of the melt pools. Texture results indicated that higher values of power and scanning speed favored the increasing of a near-cube-on-face texture and a reduction in Young's modulus.