Enhanced mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated by laser additive manufacturing under static magnetic field

This study introduced a novel magnetic-field regulation method in metallic additive manufacturing to achieve the refined grain structure and enhanced mechanical properties without post-treatment and composition changes. As a showcase material, the Ti6Al4V alloy was fabricated using direct energy deposition under the static magnetic field (SMF). It is found that the transverse SMF of 0.55 T can effectively regulate the microstructure with twisted prior-β grains (strong <001> orientation to weak <110> orientation) and discontinuous α grain boundaries. The tensile test shows a significant improvement of tensile elongation (εf) in both longitudinal and transverse directions with a slight strength decrease.