Creep Properties of Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb Produced by Selective Electron Beam Melting

Abstract

Titanium aluminides are highly attractive for high temperature applications involving dynamic components, e.g. turbine blades or turbocharger wheels, due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. The drawback is the difficult manufacturing of this material class due to the low toughness and high sensitivity to oxygen. Selective electron beam melting SEBM shows a new approach of producing complex titanium aluminide parts without a major oxygen pick up and avoiding problems with brittleness. The high cooling rates of this process lead to a very fine microstructure, which is not fully understood up to now. The microstructure determines the creep properties and therefore defines the performance of this material in high temperature applications. In this contribution, the creep properties of Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb fabricated by SEBM are investigated. The influence of the processing parameters and the building direction on the microstructure and the creep properties are discussed and compared to cast material.