Direct Metal Deposition of Satellited Ti-15Mo: Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

Satelliting has been shown to be an excellent method for rapid and low cost preparation of feedstock for metal-based additive manufacturing. In this study, a biomedical titanium alloy Ti-15Mo is produced by direct metal deposition (DMD) using the satelliting powder preparation method. The microstructure and mechanical properties are then explored. The microstructure in the DMD Ti-15Mo sample consists primarily of fine equiaxed grains and near-equiaxed grains. The cellular substructures are present at the bottom of each deposited layer while there are no obvious substructures in the upper region of each deposited layer. The formation of the morphologies of prior beta grains is explained by combining the analysis of the nucleation effect of the partially un-melted particles, while the substructure formation can be explained using the solidification and thermal cycling analysis during the DMD process. The compression test results show excellent compressive properties with a high strength of 1764 MPa and low compressive elastic modulus of 28.4 GPa.