Ductility of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by

selective laser melting of prealloyed powders

Luca Facchini
Department of Materials Engineering and Industrial Technologies, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Emanuele Magalini and Pierfrancesco Robotti
Eurocoating s.p.a., Ciré di Pergine, Italy
Alberto Molinari
Department of Materials Engineering and Industrial Technologies, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Simon Höges
Department of Laser Technology, University of Aachen, Aachen, Germany, and
Konrad Wissenbach
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology, Aachen, Germany

Abstract
Purpose – The aim of the paper is the study of the change in the mechanical properties (and in particular in ductility), with the microstructure, of a
biomedical Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by different variants of selective laser melting (SLM).
Design/methodology/approach – Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by different variants of SLM has been mechanically characterized through tensile testing.
Its microstructure has been investigated by optical observation after etching and by X-ray diffraction analysis.
Findings – SLM applied to Ti-6Al-4V alloy produces a material with a martensitic microstructure. Some microcracks, due the effect of incomplete
homologous wetting and residual stresses produced by the large solidification undercooling of the melt pool, are observable in the matrix. Owing to the
microstructure, the tensile strength of the additive manufactured parts is higher than the strength of hot worked parts, whereas the ductility is lower.
A pre-heating of the powder bed is effective in assisting remelting and reducing residual stresses, but ductility does not increase significantly, since the
microstructure remains martensitic. A post-building heat treatment causes the transformation of the metastable martensite in a biphasic a-b matrix,
with a morphology that depends on the heat treatment. This results in an increase in ductility and a reduction in strength values.
Originality/value – The study evidenced how it is possible to obtain a fully dense material and make the martensite transform in Ti-6Al-4V alloy
through the variation of the SLM process. The stabilization of the microstructure also results in an improvement of the ductility.

Keywords Alloys, Mechanical properties of materials, Manufacturing systems, Powders, Ductility

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction techniques is the possibility to create complex networks with

Ti-6Al-4V is an a-b titanium alloy widely used in the
aeronautical and medical fields because of its chemical and
mechanical features along with well-documented
biocompatibility (Ping Li et al., 2006). It is mostly processed by
hot working, but in the last few years rapid prototyping
techniques, based on sintering/melting of powders, have been
developed for the production of complex geometries, directly
from 3D CAD-data. One of the main advantages of these
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Rapid Prototyping Journal
16/6 (2010) 450– 459
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1355-2546]
[DOI 10.1108/13552541011083371]
open and interconnected porosity both in the core material and
onto the surface (Hollander et al., 2006; Ponader et al., 2007).
The energy for consolidation of the powders is provided by
either a laser beam (selective laser melting (SLM)) (Hollander
et al., 2006; Bourell et al., 2002; Over et al., 2003) or an
electron beam (electron beam melting (EBM)) (Cormier et al.,
2002; Mitchell, 1999). The common feature of these
technologies is the melting and rapid solidification of a
powder layer; under specific process conditions, solidification
results in a fully dense solid body.
The authors thank Dr Mirco D’Incau and Ing. Ivan Lonardelli for
supplying the XRD analyses, also the Provincia Autonoma di Trento,
which co-founded the project.
Received: 20 March 2009
Revised: 17 July 2009, 9 November 2009
Accepted: 12 April 2010

450
Ductility of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by melting prealloyed powders
Luca Facchini et al.
The optimization of the process has the following main tasks:
.
The production of a fully dense material (except for the
porous surface layers, when needed), which is obtained by the
optimum combination of the four main process parameters:
the power of the energy source (P), the scan speed (v), the
hatch distance (d) and the thickness of the single layer (l)
using a fixed beam diameter (D) (Simchi and Pohl, 2003).
.
The control of the residual stresses, caused by the
localization of the thermal input, which may lead to
distortion of the pieces, as well as to the formation of cracks.
.
The control of the as-built microstructure, which is strongly
influenced by the large solidification undercooling of the
melting pool.
Residual stresses are almost unavoidable. They are influenced
by the building strategy (Kruth et al., 2004) and are
significantly smaller in EBM than in SLM since the former
process is carried out with preheating of the powder bed to an
average temperature of about 6008C (Facchini et al., 2009),
which reduces thermal gradients.
Titanium alloys typically undergo thermomechanical
processes. Their conventional microstructure can be
fundamentally classified by the size and the arrangement of
the two phases a (hcp) and b (bcc) (Leyens and Peters, 2003;
Collings, 1984). Depending on the working temperature and
the cooling rate, the resulting microstructure can be lamellar
or globular, fine or coarse. The lamellar microstructure is
usually preferable for fracture toughness, fatigue crack
propagation and oxidation behaviour, whilst the globular
microsctructure is better for strength, ductility and fatigue
crack initiation.
The microstructure after rapid prototyping is quite different
from that typical of hot worked parts, since the large
undercooling promotes the formation of an acicular/lamellar
hcp phase, which is inherently less ductile than the globular
microstructure formed during hot working. In EBM, the
as-built microstructure of Ti-6Al-4V contains acicular a, and
b -phase, and does not find a correspondence in the
international standard for biomedical applications (ISO
20160). It cannot be modified by heat treatment;
nevertheless, the mechanical properties of the alloy satisfy the
standard requirements (Facchini et al., 2009).
In SLM, the solidification rate is higher than in EBM, since
no pre-heating is applied to the growing part and the working
zone. This results in a finer microstructure and larger residual
stresses. Pre-heating has another eminent effect: it assists, in
terms of energy, the remelting of the just-consolidated
substrate, allowing incomplete homologous wetting due to
oxide films to be avoided (Das, 2003).
In fact, if a contamination layer of oxide is present on the
just-built metallic substrate, melted metal powder cannot
properly wet the substrate itself. Surface remelting of the
underlying substrate is effective in the elimination of the oxide
layer; as a consequence, the molten metal can spread and wet
the substrate.
In this work, the fabrication of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy by SLM
has been investigated. Once the process parameters had been
adjusted to obtain a full dense material, attention was focused
on residual stresses and microstructure. Several process
variants were investigated in order to reduce thermal
gradients and modify the microstructure, and their effect on
mechanical properties was studied, with particular reference
to ductility.
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Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459
2. Technologies and experimental procedures
2.1 The SLM process
The parts were produced in an EOS EOSINT M 270 machine
or in an experimental machine at Fraunhofer ILT. In the first
case, a power of 195 Wand a scan speed of 225 mm/s were used.
The SLM process at Fraunhofer ILT was instead carried out in
an experimental machine built at ILT in which an neodymium-
doped yttrium aluminium garnet laser developed at ILT is used
to melt the powder with a maximum laser power of 180 Wand a
wavelength of 1,064 nm.
Energy involved in the melting of the metal powder is
directly proportional to the power of the beam and inversely
to the scan speed, the hatch distance and the layer thickness
(Simchi and Pohl, 2003). As stated above, the optimum
combination of these four main process parameters leads to
full density of the part. Investigation of the parameters was
carried out following a systematic procedure, consisting in
fixing three of the four parameters and varying the fourth,
thus evaluating the contribution of the single parameter.
An argon gas atomized powder, with spherical morphology
and particle size below 50 mm, was used. Its nominal
composition is reported in Table I.
Parts were built under an Ar protective atmosphere, with a
nominal beam power of 120-200 W and a beam diameter of
200-600 mm for a melt pool diameter of 200-300 mm.
2.2 Chemical and microstructural analysis
The oxygen and nitrogen contents were analyzed by gas
fusion in a Leco TC400 analyzer, while carbon and hydrogen
contents were analyzed by combustion and by IR
spectroscopy in a Leco CS125 and Leco TCH600 analyzer,
respectively.
The microstructure was investigated under an optical
microscope after polishing and etching with Kroll reagent.
X-Ray Diffractometry (CuKa radiation on a Rigaku 3D-Max
diffractometer) was used for the quantitative analysis of the
microstructural constituents.
2.3 Mechanical testing
Batches of five to six samples for tensile testing were obtained
from a job of bars with a rectangular cross-section, which
were built up perpendicularly to their main axis. All the
batches were machined in order to obtain the specimen
geometry for tensile testing, according to the ASTM E8M
standard. Specimens have a rectangular section, with an
overall length of 89.64 mm and a reduced section length of
31.76 mm.
Table I Nominal chemical composition of the Ti-6Al-4V pre-alloyed
powder used in the process
Chemical element SLM powder (%) ISO 5832-3 requirements (%)
Al 5.970 5.5/6.75
V 4.010 3.5/4.5
Fe 0.056 ,0.3
O 0.160 ,0.2
H 0.0034 ,0.015
N 0.010 ,0.05
C 0.013 ,0.08
Ti Balance Balance
Note: Standard requirements reported
Ductility of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by melting prealloyed powders Rapid Prototyping Journal
Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Tensile tests were carried out with an Instron 8516 servo- Figure 1 Microstructure of the material produced by hot working and
hydraulic machine, following the ASTM E8M standard and annealing
according to the ISO 6892 standard indications. A 0.2 mm/min
cross-head speed was applied. An axial extensometer was
employed for the elongation measurement, with a gauge length of
12.5 mm.
Elastic modulus (E), yield stress at 0.2 per cent of elongation
(sy), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and percent elongation at
fracture (1) were determined from stress-strain curves. The
fracture surface of broken specimens was examined by an
environmental scanning electron microscope using gaseous
secondary electrons.
In order to obtain a good comparison with Ti-6Al-4V
produced by traditional processes, ten tensile specimens were
machined from a wrought and annealed bar, and then tested.

3. Results and discussion

The presence of interstitial elements (oxygen, hydrogen, 50 µm
nitrogen and carbon) is critical for the ductility of the alloy. (a)
In fact, these elements are a-stabilizers (and a-phase is less
ductile than b). Moreover, oxygen and nitrogen distort the
hcp lattice, limiting the mobility of dislocations and
embrittling the material (Leyens and Peters, 2003).
The results of the chemical analysis of SLM parts are
reported in Table II. Carbon and oxygen contents are in
agreement with the ASTM and ISO prescriptions; the
detected amounts do not greatly affect the mechanical
properties.
As previously described, the microstructure of the Ti-6Al-4V
alloy can be lamellar or globular. Hot working and annealing
produce a typical a-globular microstructure, because of the
strain involved in the process. Semiatin et al. (2005) found
that heat treatment of an acicular microstructure in the
biphasic a þ b field produces some globularization of the
a-phase only in the case of pre-strained material, and even in
this case the kinetics are quite slow. The microstructure of the
hot worked and annealed material considered in this work is 20 µm
shown in Figure 1, where an a-globular phase in an
(b)
a þ b matrix is observable. The presence of the b-phase
(8 per cent) is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis Note: Globular a -phase (light) in a biphasic a + b matrix
(Figure 2).
Figure 3 shows the tensile stress-strain curve of the wrought
alloy. The material has a peculiar strain hardening behaviour, Figure 2 XRD pattern of the hot worked and annealed material
with a very low strain hardening rate. In consequence, the
UTS and the yield stress are quite similar. The ductility is
good, and well associated to the microstructure, as reported in
Leyens and Peters (2003). hcp-Ti
Such a microstructure is associated to the mechanical bcc-Ti
properties reported in Table III.
Intensity (a.u.)

Table II Chemical analysis on tensile specimens: oxygen, hydrogen,

nitrogen and carbon percentages
SLM ASTM F1472 ISO 5832-3
O 0.1900 ^ 0.020 , 0.20 , 0.20
H 0.0049 ^ 0.0005 , 0.015 , 0.015
N 0.0041 ^ 0.0002 , 0.05 , 0.05
C 0.0280 ^ 0.0031 , 0.08 , 0.08
40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Note: Requirements for ASTM and ISO standards are reported
2ϑ (°)

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Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Figure 3 Stress-strain curves for the material produced by hot working Figure 4 Microstructure of the material produced by SLM
and annealing
1,200
1,100
1,000
900
800
Stress (MPa)

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 50 µm
Strain (%)
(a)

Table III Tensile properties of the material produced by SLM compared

to the wrought material and to the ISO standard
Hot worked and annealed SLM ISO 5832-3
E (GPa) 104 ^ 2 110 ^ 5 –
sy (MPa) 790 ^ 20 990 ^ 5 . 780
UTS (MPa) 870 ^ 10 1,095 ^ 10 . 860
A (%) 18.1 ^ 0.8 8.1 ^ 0.3 . 10

The as-built microstructure of the material produced by SLM

has a very fine, acicular morphology (Figure 4). The XRD
analysis indicates the presence of hcp phase only (Figure 5).
The hcp pattern can be attributed to both the a-phase and the
a0 martensite, as they have the same crystalline structure and
very similar lattice parameters (Kubiak and Sieniawski, 1998;
Jovanović et al., 2006; Malinov et al., 2002). 20 µm
Because of the very large solidification undercooling, the
microstructure is interpreted as martensitic, with the typical (b)
needles visible on the etched metallographic section (Figure 4). Note: Oriented martensite plates containing acicular hcp phase
Differently from EBM, where the formerly produced
martensite (with a very high solidification rate of the melt Figure 5 XRD pattern of the as-built material
spun) is transformed into a þ b mixture by soaking at the
process temperature (Gil Mur et al., 1996), here the metastable
martensite remains the only phase present at room temperature.
The material produced by SLM is fully dense (relative hcp-Ti
density 99.7 ^ 0.1 per cent), but the metallographic
observation evidenced the presence of microcracks (length
Intensity (a.u.)

50/100 mm; Figure 6), as a consequence of incomplete

homologous wetting (Das, 2003).
Figure 7 shows the tensile stress-strain curve of the as-built
material. The yield stress is higher than in wrought alloy,
because of the martensitic microstructure, but the combined
effect of martensite, microcracks and residual stress is
responsible for low ductility, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 8 shows the fracture surface of the as-built material.
The morphology is mainly ductile, but deformation is quite 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
poor around pre-existing cracks, because of the poor work 2ϑ (°)
hardenability of the alloy.
Tensile properties are summarized in Table III, including In order to assist the remelting of the just-consolidated material
reference to those predicted by ISO 5832-3 and comparison with and to reduce residual stresses, the process has been suitably
those of the wrought alloy. The as-built material has a higher modified following literature references (Over, 2003). This
strength but a lower ductility than those taken as a reference. solution actually eliminates cracks in the as-built material,

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Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Figure 6 Microcrack in the material produced by SLM Figure 8 Fracture surface of the as-built material

100 µm

(a)
Figure 7 Stress-strain curves for the as-built material
1,200
1,100
1,000
900
800
Stress (MPa)

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Strain (%)

but the microstructure is still acicular martensitic, as shown by (b)

Figure 9 and confirmed by XRD analysis.
After the modified process, the tensile behaviour does not
improve significantly (Figure 10), comparing them with those of
Figure 7; yield stress and UTS are increased up to 1,040 and
1,140 MPa, respectively, but ductility is still low, around 8 per cent.
The presence of martensite is then responsible for the low
ductility. Martensite is a metastable phase, which can be
transformed by heat treatment. A post-SLM heat treatment was
then carried out, obtaining the microstructure shown in
Figure 11. It is biphasic, with columnar a-phase crystals
formed at the boundaries of the original martensitic plates and an
a-b mixture within. The amount of b-phase is 6 per cent, as
shown measured by XRD (Figure 12). The microstructure is
quite different from the globular microstructure of a wrought
alloy, since alpha phase nucleates and grows in the interplate
regions, developing a texture. There is a clear memory effect in
the martensite to alpha transformation. In wrought alloy, instead,
a-phase nucleates in the highly strained regions, which are
homogeneously distributed in the cross-section, and grows
symmetrically; this leads to the globular microstructure.
The mechanical properties are significantly improved by
this process, as expected. Figure 13 shows the tensile stress-
strain curves of the heat treated materials; strength is lower
than that of the as-built alloy, but ductility is increased up to
10.6 ^ 0.6 per cent.
In order to prevent the memory effect of the martensite to
alpha transformation during heat treatment and obtain a
biphasic microstructure, a second variant has been introduced
in the process as a combination of heat treatments (Over,
2003; Hollander et al., 2006). The microstructure resulting is
shown in Figure 14: it consists of coarse lamellae of a-phase,
with some globulization in isolated regions (Figure 14(b) and
(c)). The amount of b-phase is 7 per cent, as measured by
XRD analysis (Figure 15).
The stress-strain curves related to such a microstructure are
shown in Figure 16. The tensile properties are very similar to
those of the previous case, but ductility is slightly increased,
due to the lack of texture in the alpha phase. Properties are
reported in Table IV, and compared to those of the as-built
material and of the references.
4. Conclusions
Ti-6Al-4V is an a-b titanium alloy widely used in orthopaedic
and dental surgery because of its biocompatibility. Its
mechanical properties strongly depend on its microstructure.

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Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Figure 9 Microstructure of the material produced by modified SLM Figure 11 Microstructure of the material produced by SLM and heat
treated (variant 1)

50 µm
50 µm
(a)
(a)

20 µm
20 µm
(b)
Note: Martensite plates still visible (b)
Notes: A biphasic microstructure developed into the prior martensite
plates; light a -phase precipitates at the former plate edges

Figure 10 Stress-strain curves for the material produced by modified

SLM
Figure 12 XRD pattern of the material produced by SLM and heat
1,200
treated (variant 1)
1,100
1,000
900 hcp-Ti
800 bcc-Ti
Stress (MPa)

700
Intensity (a.u.)

600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Strain (%) 2ϑ (°)

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Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Figure 13 Stress-strain curves for the material produced by SLM and Rapid prototyping techniques are currently being developed
heat treated (variant 1) for the production of complex prostheses, directly from
3D CAD-data. These techniques uniquely allow the
1,200 functionalization of the surfaces by building up, in one single
1,100 step, a porous surface layer with a tailored trabecular structure,
1,000 which is able to enhance the interaction with the tissues. The
900 mastery of the process necessitates obtaining the full density,
800 the minimization of the residual stresses and the control of the
microstructure.
Stress (MPa)

700
The as-built material coming from the SLM process has a
600
martensitic microstructure; the matrix is composed of acicular
500
a-phase, while no b-phase is present. Some microcracks are also
400 observable in the matrix; they are due to the effect of incomplete
300 homologous wetting and residual stresses produced by the large
200 solidification undercooling of the melt pool.
100 A proper modification of the standard process is effective in
0 supporting homologous wetting during the melting of the
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 powder and reducing residual stresses, but ductility does not
Strain (%) increase significantly, since the microstructure remains
martensitic.

Figure 14 Microstructure of the material produced by SLM and heat treated (variant 2)

50 µm 20 µm

(a) (b)

50 µm 20 µm

(c) (d)
Notes: Coarse lamellae of a-phase; b -phase appeared; globalization of a -phase occurred in isolated regions

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Luca Facchini et al. Volume 16 · Number 6 · 2010 · 450 –459

Figure 15 XRD pattern of the material produced by SLM and heat Table V Summary of different procedures for rapid manufacturing of
treated (variant 2) Ti-6Al-4V
Yield Breaking
hcp-Ti Microstructure UTS stress elongation
bcc-Ti
Hot worked Globular a in 870 ^ 10 790 ^ 20 18.1 ^ 0.8
a þ b matrix
Intensity (a.u.)

EBM acicular a þ b 915 ^ 10 830 ^ 5 13.1 ^ 0.4

SLM acicular a0 1,095 ^ 10 990 ^ 5 8.1 ^ 0.3
Modified 1,140 ^ 10 1,040 ^ 10 8.2 ^ 0.3
SLM acicular a0
SLM 915 ^ 5 835 ^ 5 10.6 ^ 0.6
variant 1 Lamellar a þ b
30 40 50 60 70 80 SLM 990 ^ 15 870 ^ 15 11.0 ^ 0.5
variant 2 Lamellar a þ b
2ϑ (°)
Globular a
Note: Microstructure and mechanical properties
Figure 16 Stress-strain curves for the material produced by SLM and
heat treated (variant 2)
1,200 Figure 17 Stress-strain curves for the material produced by different
1,100 process variants; a comparison
1,000 1,200
900 1,100
800 1,000
Stress (MPa)

700 900
600
800
Stress (MPa)

500
700
400
600
300
500
200 Hot working and annealing
400
100 SLM
300 EBM
0 Modified SLM
200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 SLM variant 1
100 SLM variant 2
Strain (%)
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Table IV Tensile properties of the material produced by SLM and SLM Strain (%)
heat treated (variant 2), in comparison with reference data
Hot worked SLM heat
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About the authors
Luca Facchini received the MSc in Materials Engineering at
the University of Trento, Italy, with a thesis on the production
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of Ultrafine Grained Materials by mechanical milling ad spark
plasma sintering. He is a PhD student in the Department of
Materials Engineering and Industrial Technologies of the
University of Trento, Italy. He works on the characterization
of biomedical alloys produced by Laser Melting and EBM.
He has also worked on the sintering of hard metals.
Luca Facchini is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: luca.facchini@ing.unitn.it
Emanuele Magalini received the MSc in Materials
Engineering at the University of Trento, Italy, with a thesis
on a review of the drying process of gypsum. He is developing
some R&D projects for Eurocoating s.p.a. – Italy; these
projects are focused on medical devices made with new and
innovative materials including plastic, metals, ceramics
and composite. In particular, he supervises the mechanical
and chemical characterization of the material and the
improvement of the production/manufacturing process.
Pierfrancesco Robotti received his MSc in Biomedical
Engineering at Milan Polytechnic University, Italy. He has
served for about ten years c/o Tecres s.p.a. – Italy, an
international market leader company, manufacturer of acrylic-
based bone cements world wide. He was initially a Researcher,
later on Research Officer and finally he had Officer responsibility
to coordinate both Research and Regulatory Affair activities.
Since 2005, he is Research Officer c/o Eurocoating s.p.a. – Italy,
an international market leader company, manufacturer of porous
structures for bone integration world wide. Eurocoating s.p.a.,
among the others activities, has in place a Rapid Prototyping
Department where several direct metal manufacturing
technologies, based on powder metallurgy, are investigated
and, when possible, exploited for commercial production of
orthopaedic and dental implantable components.
Alberto Molinari is a Full Professor of Metallurgy at the
University of Trento. He received his MSc in Chemical
Engineering at the University of Padova, Italy and his PhD in
Metallurgical Engineering at the Turin Polytechnic
University, Italy. Since 2003, he has been the Head of the
Department of Materials Engineering and Industrial
Technologies, of the University of Trento. He is also the
Head of the Metallurgy Group of the Department. His main
research areas are: production and heat treatment of special
steels and irons (ADI and CGI); hot and cold working of
steels and non-ferrous alloys; surface engineering of steels and
titanium alloys; powder metallurgy (production, heat
treatment, mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties
of sintered steels and non-ferrous alloys); metal injection
moulding; nanomaterials by powder metallurgy (milling and
consolidation of metallic powders); laser melting and EBM of
metallic powders; spark plasma sintering of functionally
graded materials, composite and ceramics; cryogenic
treatment of steel and non-ferrous alloys. He is the author
of more than 300 publications in international and national
journals and conference proceedings.
Simon Höges received his Diploma in Physics at the
University of Aachen, Germany with a thesis on process
simulation of melt flow behaviour in small melt pools.
Since then, he has been working as a Research Assistant and a
PhD student at the Department of Laser Technology. He
works on the process development of SLM for biomedical
applications.
Ductility of a Ti-6Al-4V alloy produced by melting prealloyed powders
Luca Facchini et al.
Konrad Wissenbach is a Research Assistant at the
Fraunhofer ILT and Head of the Department “Surface
Treatment” with the main foci in laser cleaning, laser
cladding, alloying and dispersing, laser heat treatment, rapid
prototyping and rapid manufacturing by SLM, laser polishing
and structuring as well as functionalization of coatings by
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laser radiation. He received his Diploma in Physics at the
University of Darmstadt. He then worked as a Research
Assistant at the Institute for Applied Physics in Darmstadt
in the field of laser surface technology with the main focus in
laser hardening. He received his PhD with a thesis on
transformation hardening with CO2-laser radiation.