Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127210

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Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mlblue

Laser additive manufacturing of bimetallic structure from Ti-6Al-4V to

Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb via vanadium interlayer
Zhanqi Liu a, Ruixin Ma a, Guojian Xu a,⇑, Wei Wang b, Jin Liu a
a
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang 110870, China
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shenyang University of Technology, Shenyang 110870, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As a potential candidate material, Ti6Al4V (TC4)/Ti48Al2Cr2Nb (TiAl) bimetallic structure (BS) material
Received 5 December 2019 has a good development prospects in the field of aerospace engineering, and has a broad application pro-
Received in revised form 16 December 2019 spects for the integrated manufacture of aero-engine turbine blades (TiAl) and turbine disks (TC4).
Accepted 20 December 2019
However, via the direct bonding of TC4/TiAl BS, it is easy to produce brittle intermetallic compounds
Available online 20 December 2019
which increases the crack sensitivity. Therefore, to a certain extent, the application of TC4/TiAl BS is lim-
ited. In this study, we use laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology to prepare the TC4/TiAl BS via a
Keywords:
V interlayer, which further limits the formation of a brittle phase. The experimental results show that the
Laser additive manufacturing
Ti/TiAl bimetallic structure
V interlayer can effectively limit the formation of the brittle phase (Ti3Al), which reduces the crack sen-
Interfaces sitivity of the formed parts, and forms a good metallurgical joint at the TC4/TiAl BS interfaces. Results of
Microstructure room temperature tensile tests reveal that the tensile strength and elongation of the BS specimens are
Brittle phases ~476 MPa, and ~2.8% respectively, which means that the strength of the joint exceeded that of the depos-
Tensile strength ited TiAl alloy without the V interlayer.
Ó 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction materials are controlled by the optimized parameters, the addition

Weight reduction is a vital parameter in the field of aerospace
parts design and manufacture [1,2]. At present, Ti-based alloys
(such as TC4) have been widely used in the aerospace field because
of their high-quality properties (such as high specific strength) [3–
5]. TiAl-based alloys have the characteristics of low density (~4g/
cm3), good high-temperature creep resistance, oxidation resis-
tance, and excellent elastic modulus. In recent years, it is consid-
ered to be an ideal material for the manufacture of aero-engine
blades [6–9]. Therefore, researchers have tried to replace Ti-
based alloys and Ni-based alloys with TiAl-based alloys, but the
use of TiAl-based alloys as the overall structure brings high manu-
facturing costs and difficult processing due to the poor ductility
and inherent brittleness of TiAl-based alloys at room temperature
[10–12]. Therefore, bimetallic structure (BS) materials of Ti-based
alloys/TiAl-based alloys have been widely studied by researchers
[13,14], but how to realise the joint of BS has become a current
problem. In recent years, laser additive manufacturing (LAM) tech-
nology provides a novel method to efficiently and flexibly facilitate
complex-part production. The microstructure and properties of the
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xuguojian@sut.edu.cn (G. Xu).
of alloying elements, and the functionally graded material (FGM).
Moreover, the density of TiAl-based alloy specimens using LAM
can reach up to ~98.5% [15]. It can be said that LAM technology
is an ideal manufacturing method for Ti-based alloy/TiAl-based
alloy BS. For example, Shishkovsky et al. [16] prepared Ti/TiAl func-
tional graded structures by LAM technology, and produced a grad-
ual transformation from Ti alloy to TiAl alloy by mixing different
ratios of Ti and Al alloy powders. Xu et al. [17] successfully pre-
pared TC11/c-TiAl BS materials by a LAM technique and studied
the microstructure and mechanical properties of the interface in
detail. Zhang et al. [18] successfully prepared TC11/Ti2AlNb double
alloys by LAM technology and analysed the microstructure and
tensile properties at room temperature. However, there are few
reports on using LAM technology to realise TC4/TiAl BS connection
via a V interlayer.
According to the phase diagrams of the Ti-Ta, Ti-Nb, Ti-V, Ti-W
and Ti-Mo binary alloys, the above elements and Ti can form infi-
nite solid solutions which can effectively inhibit the formation of
brittle phases. Compared with Ta, Nb, W, and Mo elements, V has
better ductility, so V can be considered as an ideal interlayer for
the preparation of TC4/TiAl BS specimens.
In this study, through using V as the interlayer, TC4/TiAl BS was
prepared by LAM technology. The formability, microstructure,
phase composition, elemental distribution, and the mechanical

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2019.127210
0167-577X/Ó 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 Z. Liu et al. / Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127210

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic showing the LAM TC4/TiAl BS aero-engine turbine blade; (b) Macrograph of the TC4/TiAl BS specimen with V interlayer; (c) Geometry and dimension
(mm) of the tensile specimen.

properties of the BS were studied, which provides a theoretical

basis for practical applications of integral turbine blade disks
(Fig. 1(a)).

2. Experimental procedures

The LAM test equipment adopted the LDM8060 system pro-

duced by RAYCHAM (Nanjing, Jiangsu, China), which is composed
of an LDF-4000 fibre-coupled diode laser. Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) and Ti-
48Al-2Cr-2Nb (TiAl) alloy powders were produced by Zhonghang
Maite Powder Metallurgical Technology Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China).
The particle size of the powder is 53–150 lm. The chemical com-
position of the TC4 alloy powder (wt.%) is 6.04 Al, 3.82 V and the
balance of Ti. TiAl alloy contains 32.5 wt% Al, 4.62 wt% Nb,
2.64 wt% Cr and the balance is Ti.
In order to prevent oxidation, the LAM experiment was carried
out in the oxygen level lower than 50 ppm. The applied LAM pro-
cessing parameters are given in Table 1. A thin-wall specimen was
built on a substrate of TC4 alloy.
The cross sections of the specimens were polished and etched
by using Kalling’s reagent (HF:HNO3:H2O = 1:6:60 vol%). The
microstructure of the specimen was characterised by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM, SU8010). The phase distribution at the
interfaces of TiAl/V and V/TC4 was analysed by EBSD method. Fig. 2. (a) The sample cross-section SEM micrograph of the TC4/TiAl BS; (b) EDS line
scan across the TC4, V, and TiAl; (c–e) SEM image, BC map and phase distribution of
The room-temperature tensile property of the BS was evaluated the EBSD result in the TiAl/V interface, respectively; (f–h) SEM image, BC map and
using a universal electronic tester (WDW-100) with a loading rate phase distribution of the EBSD result in the TC4/V interface, respectively.
of 0.5 mm/min.

3. Results and discussion can be divided into three regions (TiAl, V, and TC4 regions), and
two interfaces (TiAl/V and V/TC4 interfaces). The results show that
The potential application of TC4/TiAl BS is the aero-engine inte- there are no microcracks or metallurgical defects and the structure
gral turbine blisk, as shown in Fig. 1(a). In order to successfully of the V zone is mainly equiaxed grains. From the EDS composition
connect TC4/TiAl BS, we used LAM technology to make TC4/TiAl analysis results in Fig. 2(b), it can be seen that a certain amount of
BS specimens via a V interlayer, and the appearance of the speci- Ti and Al has been dissolved in the V region, which indicates that
men is shown in Fig. 1(b). From the outside of the specimen, the the joints form a metallurgical bond.
surface is perfect without cracking and metallurgical defects. In order to further study the interfaces of TiAl/V and V/TC4, the
Fig. 1(c) shows the tensile test-piece size and the tensile direction. microstructural morphology near the interface was magnified, as
The optical micrograph of the TC4/TiAl BS sample cross-section shown in Fig. 2(c–g). As shown in Fig. 2(c–e), the EBSD results
is shown in Fig. 2(a). According to the different microstructure, it show that the microstructure of the TiAl/V interface is mainly com-
posed of a2, c, and V solid solution phases, with the morphology of
these phases being shown in the SEM image and band contrast (BC)
Table 1
map, respectively. As shown in Fig. 2(f–g), the EBSD results show
LAM process parameters for bimetallic structure from TC4 to TiAl using V.
that the microstructure of the V/TC4 interface is mainly composed
Material Laser power (W) Laser scan speed Powder feed rate of a-Ti and V solid solutions, with the morphology of the phases
(mm/min) (g/min)
being shown in the SEM image and BC map respectively. In the
TiAl 1400 540 5.6 TC4 alloy zone, because the a phase wets the grain boundaries of
TC4 1900 420 6.2
the b phase [19], a combination without metallurgical defects is
V 1900 420 6.5
formed between the two phases, thus the mechanical properties
 Z. Liu et al. / Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127210
Fig. 3. (a) Fracture position of the BS; (b) Stress-strain curve of the tensile specimen; (c) Morphology of the fracture surface.
of the alloy are improved [20]. In the TiAl alloy zone, because the V
phase wets the grain boundaries of a2 and c phases, a good metal-
lurgical combination is formed between different phases, thus
improving its mechanical properties.
Fig. 3(a) shows that the fracture position of the TC4/TiAl BS is on
the TiAl alloy side rather than on the V interlayer, indicating that
the V interlayer has a good bonding strength at room temperature.
Fig. 3(b) shows the stress-strain curve of the TC4/TiAl BS without
an obvious yielding stage before fracture. The tensile strength at
room temperature is 476 MPa. Compared with the reference values
[21], the tensile strength is improved by 1.6 times. This shows that
V is an ideal interlayer for LAM TC4/TiAl BS. This is due to the good
plasticity and toughness of the V-solid solution, so the crack sensi-
tivity of TC4/TiAl BS is reduced. It can be seen from Fig. 3(c) that
the fracture morphology has both small cleavage steps and a cer-
tain amount of plastic deformation, indicating that the fracture
pattern is a quasi-cleavage fracture.
4. Conclusions
Through using the V as an interlayer, a metallurgical defect-free
TiAl/TC4 BS has been successfully fabricated by LAM technology,
which effectively reduced the generation of the brittle a2 phase.
Metallurgical bonds are formed at the interfaces of TiAl/V and V/
TC4. Tensile results show that the V interlayer is an effective join-
ing method for the TC4/TiAl BS. Compared to LAM TC4/TiAl BS
without a V interlayer, the tensile strength with the V interlayer
is improved by 1.6 times.
Author contribution
Zhanqi Liu’s main contribution to this research is the concep-
tion and writing of the experiment. Guojian Xu ’s main contribu-
tion is theoretical guidance and the support of scientific research
funds. Ruixin Ma, Wei Wang and Jin Liu mainly made correspond-
ing contributions to the processing of experimental materials.
3
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The work was supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China under Grant No. 2017YFB1103600.
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