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Progress in Additive Manufacturing

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11-02-2021 | Full Research Article

Additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by metal fused filament fabrication (MF³): producing parts comparable to that of metal injection molding

Published in: Progress in Additive Manufacturing | Issue 4/2021

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Abstract

This paper presents metal-fused filament fabrication (MF³) for manufacturing Ti-6Al-4V parts by 3D printing of green parts followed by debinding and sintering to obtain mechanical properties comparable to metal injection-molded (MIM) specimens. The current work discusses critical material and process aspects of the MF³ process that currently limits it from effective defect-free translation from 3D printed to sintering. We show successfully produced bound filament with 59 vol% of Ti-6Al-4V powder mixed with a polymeric binder system to print parts using MF³. The feedstock and filaments showed uniform powder dispersion and acceptable flowability necessary for consistent extrusion during MF³ printing, leading to defect-free parts. The green part density was 98.5 ± 0.6% relative to the density of the 59 vol% Ti-6Al-4V feedstock that resulted in successful debinding without slumping, no warpage, and layer delamination of the MF³ parts. A two-step debinding combining solvent and thermal extraction of polymer binder followed by sintering in partial vacuum resulted in almost isotropic shrinkage of ~ 14% in all directions. The sintered density of these parts was 94.2 ± 0.1%. The mechanical properties of the present MF³ processed Ti-6Al-4V alloy parts represent UTS of 875 ± 15 MPa and elongation of 17 ± 3%, which being 1.7% higher in UTS and 17.5% higher in elongation when compared to literature data for metal injection-molded parts.

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Title: Additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V alloy by metal fused filament fabrication (MF3): producing parts comparable to that of metal injection molding
Publication date: 11-02-2021
Published in: Progress in Additive Manufacturing / Issue 4/2021
Print ISSN: 2363-9512
Electronic ISSN: 2363-9520
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40964-021-00167-5

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