from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
<div>Titanium and its alloys offer a unique combination of properties (e.g. high specific strength, biocompatibility and corrosion resistance). The production volumes of titanium are lower compared to other metals, despite its excellent properties and relatively high mineral resources. It is all caused by the costly and ineffective production method, so-called Kroll process. A reduction in costs could lead to an increase in the use of titanium and its alloys. Recycling of titanium scrap is a potential solution. However, the recycling process might be problematic due to the contamination of scrap by gasses, cutting fluids, machining debris, oxide layer caused by titanium’s high reactivity with oxygen etc. As a result, most of titanium scrap being used for production of a ferrotitanium (deoxidising element for steel) rather than being recycled into titanium alloys.The suitable recycling method, which would allow to use titanium scrap for manufacturing of materials comparable to the primary alloys, could represent significant change for the titanium market.The aim of this work is to evaluate the recycling process of Ti-6Al-4V alloy using the plasma arc melting (PAM) method and subsequently to assess the possibilities for its use in additive manufacturing. The purity, microstructure and mechanical properties of recycled alloy were analysed. The powder obtained from atomizing the same recycled alloy has been evaluated (distribution, morphology and chemical composition) and possibilities of processing this powder by two 3D printing methods, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) and direct energy deposition (DED), were investigated.</div>
Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V, recycling, PAM method, additive manufacturing© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.