Mechanical Properties of Porous Ti–6Al–4V Alloys Prepared by Selective Laser Melting and Post-heat Treatments

In this study, porous Ti–6Al–4V alloys were prepared by selective laser melting (SLM), and post-heat treatments were also performed on as-built alloys. The effects of post-heat treatments on the microstructural and textural properties of SLM-prepared porous Ti–6Al–4V alloys were investigated in detail. In our work, porous Ti–6Al–4V alloys were fabricated by SLM with two built directions. During the SLM process, the hatching distance, hatching power, rotation angle, exposure time, and point distance were kept at 0.065 mm, 200 W, 67°, 50 μs, and 75 μm, respectively. The post-heat treatments were performed in a vertical tube furnace for 2 h with a heating rate of 10 °C/min, and temperatures of 500, 700, 884, 950, 1000, and 1050 °C were used in these treatments. After these treatments, the samples were cooled in air. The microstructural and textural properties of as-built and heat-treated porous Ti–6Al–4V alloys were analyzed in detail. The textural properties were observed by optical and scanning electron microscopies. More detailed analysis results regarding the use of these alloys in medical porous implants will be presented in the future. The porous sample subjected to post-heat treatment at 500 °C had the lowest Young’s modulus (34.372 GPa) and the highest tensile strength (259.6 MPa), which were close to those of human bone.