Designing advanced intermetallic titanium aluminide alloys for additive manufacturing

Lightweight intermetallic γ-TiAl based alloys are innovative high-temperature structural materials. So far, these alloys are in use as turbine blades or turbocharger turbine wheels in advanced aerospace and automotive engines, where they are produced by means of investment casting as well as wrought processing, e.g. hot-forging. Through the development of powder-based additive manufacturing processes within the last decade, a real paradigm shift for future component production as well as their design and materials properties was created. While so-called proven alloy systems are presently used worldwide for additive manufacturing, the approach of this work is the development of novel process-adapted γ-TiAl based alloys, which on the one hand fulfill the specific requirements of additive manufacturing and on the other hand provide excellent high temperature properties after a suitable heat treatment. Based on the concept of an engineering γ-TiAl based alloy, i.e. the so-called TNM alloy, two alloys are presented. Due to the chemical reactivity of titanium aluminide alloys, electron beam melting processes come into consideration as production methods using optimized manufacturing parameters, providing dense components with only small variations in the Al content between the individual powder layers, which is a decisive factor for the subsequent heat treatment above the γ solvus temperature. The additively produced samples show a fine equiaxed microstructure, whereas the heat-treated samples exhibit a fully lamellar α₂/γ microstructure with an excellent creep resistance. In summary, the adaptation of the additive manufacturing parameters in combination with innovative alloys and subsequent heat treatments are the basis for producing reliable high-performance TiAl components in the near future.