Carbon Solid Solution Effect on Microstructures of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Prepared Ti Alloys

In this study, titanium (Ti) alloy with carbon (C) solid solution was fabricated by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) from Ti-TiC mixture powder to investigate the effect of C solid solution on microstructure and tensile properties of LPBF Ti alloy. XRD and TEM analysis showed that part of TiC particles was decomposed from the surface during melting process of LPBF and C was solid soluted in α-Ti for Ti-(0.09∼0.4 wt%) C. The solid solution of carbon changed the microstructure of the LPBF Ti alloy to fine acicular microstructure due to the martensitic phase transformation. This was also observed in Ti-0.4 wt% C, where solid solution of carbon was not confirmed, suggesting that in Ti-0.4 wt% C, C was once solid solution and precipitated as TiC after phase transformation. LPBF Ti-C alloys showed good strength-ductility, UTS and elongation at break for Ti-0.2 wt% C were 746 MPa and 26.3%, respectively.