Metallography of Intermetallic Titanium Aluminides – the (Additive) Manufacturing Makes the Difference

Abstract

Abstract The global economic network, increasing mobility and wealth have a significant impact on energy consumption and environmental degradation, creating a serious social and political pressure on climate protection issues and a sustainable use of limited natural resources. In this context, a variety of programs are launched worldwide on a political and scientific / technical level to reduce aviation as well as automobile emissions. To meet these requirements, apart from new and improved design and lightweight construction concepts, high-temperature lightweight structural materials and their processing technologies play a key role. Due to their high specific (creep) strength and low density, intermetallic titanium aluminides have a particularly great potential, which is already being used industrially. While in the last decades, predominantly ingot metallurgical processes have been developed for the production of pre-material, which have subsequently been processed by casting and hot-working, the introduction of powder-based manufacturing technologies (e. g. additive manufacturing), with the availability of high-quality alloy powder, opens up new ways of material processing and component design. The basis of this work is the process-adapted 4th generation TNM-alloy, which was developed at the Chair of Physical Metallurgy and Metallic Materials. Due to its reactivity, manufacturing methods used are electron beam melting and laser powder-bed fusion as well as spark plasma sintering. Furthermore, high demands are placed on the production of the powder, in particular with regard to its purity. The chemical composition of the project alloy is designed and optimized so that it is “resistant” to the characteristics of the different manufacturing processes and their physical conditions. The starting powders and the manufactured specimens are subjected to a comprehensive characterization involving microstructural investigations on several length scales as well as the examination of the mechanical properties. Moreover, in order to further optimize the mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, it is an essential goal to develop suitable heat treatments. This work will show how conventional and high-resolution metallography can be used to combine innovative alloys with new processing technologies.