International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Fatigue

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfatigue

Application of mechanical surface finishing processes for roughness

reduction and fatigue improvement of additively manufactured
Ti-6Al-4V parts
S. Bagehorn a,⇑, J. Wehr a, H.J. Maier b
a
Airbus Group, Airbus Group Innovations, 81663 Munich, Germany
b
Institut für Werkstoffkunde (Materials Science), Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30823 Garbsen, Germany

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

Article history: Currently, additively manufactured (AM) parts have a high initial surface roughness after the manufac-
Received 25 January 2017 turing process, which can be a limitation for application in highly stressed and cyclically loaded areas.
Received in revised form 8 May 2017 In the present study, Ti-6Al-4V samples were manufactured by laser beam melting, annealed and hot iso-
Accepted 9 May 2017
statically pressed afterwards. They showed an initial surface roughness of Ra = 17.9 lm depending on
Available online 11 May 2017
their build direction (45°). Subsequently, four different mechanical surface finishing processes were
applied separately on plates and fatigue coupons in order to reduce the surface roughness: Milling, blast-
Keywords:
ing, vibratory grinding and a micro machining process. The effectiveness of each treatment is evaluated
High-cycle fatigue
Additive manufacturing
with respect to the surface topography, as well as the fatigue properties based on axial fatigue tests per-
Titanium formed in accordance to DIN EN 6072. The initial roughness could often be reduced to values Ra < 1 lm.
Ti-6Al-4V The roughness decrease led to a substantial increase in the fatigue performance from initially 300 MPa to
Laser beam a maximum of 775 MPa (after 3  107 cycles).
Surface treatments Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Milling
Micro machining process
Vibratory grinding
Blasting
Surface roughness

1. Introduction of the AM process or the post-treatment of the parts. In addition to

Nowadays, titanium alloys and especially Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) are
of increasing importance for the aerospace industry [1]. Due to
its high strength, high resistance to corrosion and its low density,
this material can be used to replace heavier alloys in order to save
weight or create new functionalities [2–4]. Ti64 can also be pro-
cessed by additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, which offers
the opportunity to significantly reduce both, the amount of raw
material needed and the weight of a component. This is possible
due to the build-up of highly complex net-shaped parts almost
without any additional tooling. Processing Ti64 by additive manu-
facturing, the raw material is often either powder or wire based.
The parts are realized directly out of a computer-aided design
(CAD) model, which is built up layer by layer in incremental steps.
During the additive manufacturing process the raw material is
selectively molten by an energy source (e.g. laser or electron beam)
within each layer. Many ongoing studies focus on the optimization
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Sarah.Bagehorn@airbus.com (S. Bagehorn).
heat treatment procedures, surface finishing of the as-built parts is
mandatory after the manufacturing process for many applications
[5–7]. After a powder bed process, as-built parts face a high initial
surface roughness, which is caused by powder particles sticking to
the molten surface contour during manufacturing. This causes
heterogeneous and non-reproducible surface morphologies [5,8].
Since this roughness might cause additional notch effects and trig-
ger crack initiation, it also has a negative impact on the fatigue per-
formance [6,9–15]. Therefore, the roughness has to be decreased
by means of a suitable surface finishing process. For this purpose
milling and blasting are common procedures for the post-
processing of AM built parts [5,16,17]. However, for complex
geometries, milling might not be applicable on every surface such
as undercuts or inner structures. Therefore the present study
investigated the effect of a blasting and vibratory grinding process,
as well as micro machining process in addition to milling on the
fatigue behaviour of Ti64. All four processes were applied on
Ti64 plates, which were additively built by a laser beam within a
powder bed machine. Each plate was characterized before and
after the applied surface finishing process in order to understand

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfatigue.2017.05.008
0142-1123/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
136 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142
the modification of the surface morphology. Furthermore, fatigue
samples were built and smoothened afterwards in order to shed
light on the influence of each surface finishing process on the fati-
gue performance.
2. Experimental
2.1. Material
For the study two sample geometries were chosen. In order to
characterize the surface morphology prior and after each surface
finishing process, plates with the dimensions of
105 mm  75 mm  3 mm were built up. They were manufactured
at an angle of 45° with respect to the base platform. This angle was
chosen to obtain the worst case surface roughness, which can be
achieved without the use of support structures. The angular depen-
dence of surface roughness can be attributed to the so-called stair-
case effect, which is described elsewhere [5,18,19]. For the
investigations of the fatigue behaviour, samples of type FCE 25A
according to DIN EN 6072 [20] were manufactured. The samples
depicted in Fig. 1 had a length of 80 mm and a thread size of
M16x1. For each surface condition, eleven samples were manufac-
tured with Kt = 1. All fatigue samples were built up at an angle of
90° with respect to the base platform, as initial trials had shown
that the final contour of the samples tend to lose symmetry, if they
were built at the same angle as the plates without support struc-
tures. In this case, the threads were more difficult to manufacture.
Moreover, this would have resulted in a bending moment upon
mounting the samples into the fatigue test machine, as the threads
were not accurately centred anymore.
For the manufacturing process Ti-6Al-4V powder with an aver-
aged particle size of 44 lm (Dp50) was provided by TLS Technik
GmbH. The chemical composition is shown in Table 1. With
parameters resulting from previous studies, all samples were built
with an energy density of 54.3 J/mm3 on a laser beam machine EOS
M270 at the Fraunhofer Institute ILT. A scanning velocity of 1.2 m/s
was used and the thickness of each layer to be built was set to
30 lm. The averaged laser spot size was 80 lm. Prior to the sepa-
ration from the build plate, all samples were stress annealed at
540 °C for four hours under vacuum and cooled within an Argon
gas atmosphere. In order to minimize the risk of fatigue failure
caused by inner pores or imperfections, all samples were addition-
ally hot isostatically pressed for 2 h at 810 °C and 2000 bar within
an inert gas environment.
2.2. Surface characterization
In order to characterize the surface morphology before and after
each surface finishing process, scanning electron microscope (SEM)
micrographs were recorded using a JSM Jeol 6320F SEM. Prior to
Fig. 1. Round fatigue sample according to DIN EN 6072 [20].
each SEM analysis, the samples were sputtered with a platinum
layer with a thickness of 4 nm. SEM micrographs were also used
for a detailed investigation on fractured surfaces of broken fatigue
samples.
The roughness of each plate was determined by means of a
Hommel Etamic Waveline profilometer T8000. The roughness
was measured three times on both sides of each plate. The arith-
metic average roughness Ra, the ten-point height roughness Rz
and the maximum height of the profile Rt were measured accord-
ing to DIN EN 4287 [21–23].
In order to characterize the microstructure of the bulk material,
the samples were sectioned normal to the build direction. After-
wards they were embedded into an epoxy resin, polished and
etched with Kroll’s reagent [24]. The etched surface were then
analysed using a Keyence VHX-5000 digital microscope.
2.3. Fatigue testing
The high-cycle fatigue (HCF) tests were performed on two dif-
ferent resonance machines. The fatigue samples with as built,
milled and blasted surfaces were tested on a Rumul Fractronic test
rig. The vibratory ground and micro machined samples were tested
on a Rumul Mikrotron test rig. Both machines were equipped with
a 24 kN load cell. Prior to testing both machines were calibrated
and the stress amplitudes were found to be within ±1% of the nom-
inal values for both machines. All samples were tested with an
axial fatigue stress ratio of R = 0.1 at constant maximum stress
levels varying between 300 and 900 MPa. The tests were per-
formed at ambient temperature and a frequency of approximately
110 Hz. The fatigue limit was set to 3x107 cycles subsequently
referred to as ‘run-out’.
2.4. Surface finishing processes for roughness reduction
For roughness reduction, four mechanical surface finishing pro-
cesses were separately applied on both sides of Ti64 as-built plates
and fatigue samples. In order to have a reference sample series,
both sample geometries were milled in accordance to the standard
DIN EN 6072. The plates were machined on a Deckel FP3NC milling
machine. The fatigue samples were machined on a contour-
controlled lathe GDW 3000CS.
In addition, plates and fatigue samples were manually blasted
with premium corundum (Al2O3) in accordance to aerospace stan-
dards. The blasting media had an average particle size distribution
of 0.5–1.0 mm (Dp50) and the particle shape was sharp-edged. All
samples were blasted manually within a closed blasting chamber
and a blasting pressure of 5 bar. The blasting lance was orientated
approximately 45° towards the surface to be treated and within a
distance of 50 mm. The treatment time was approximately 2 min
per plate side and less than 5 min per fatigue sample.
During vibratory grinding, all samples were treated together
within a vibrating bowl from Roessler filled with a fluid compound
and small abrasive particles, which were adjusted for Ti64. In this
study, the samples were treated in two steps: Within the first 39 h
the main roughness was decreased by coarser particles. Within the
following 9 h, finer particles were used for the surface optimization
up to very low roughness values.
The fourth surface finishing process applied was the so-called
micro machining process developed by the company BestInClass.
In a first step, the roughness profile was analysed in order to
choose the right media for the roughness reduction. Next, so-
called micro tools were chosen, which were adapted to the corre-
sponding roughness. In comparison to the vibratory grinding pro-
cess, micro machining can also be a batch wise process, in which
a fine polishing step can be applied in the end. It took approxi-
mately 50 h to decrease the roughness of the current samples to
 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142 137

Table 1
Chemical composition of the Ti-6Al-4V powder used for the laser beam melting process.

Al V Fe O N Ti
Content, wt.% 6.4 4.2 0.2 0.1 0.007 Balance

the final values. The plates were treated separately from the fati- of partially molten particles, as well as of all surface furrows on a
gue samples. milled part. Only slight milling stripes remain on the surface.
Fig. 4b) demonstrates an SEM micrograph of the plate surface
after blasting. All particles sticking to the surface could be
3. Results
removed. However, the measured roughness values are still fairly
high (Table 2) and the surface shows an irregular shape with sharp
3.1. Surface morphology
edges and furrows.
Fig. 5 demonstrates an SEM image recorded in backscatter
The surface morphology of the as-built metallic AM compo-
mode along with an EDX analysis of the blasted surface. All darker
nents showed a high initial surface roughness, which can directly
areas in Fig. 5a) have chemical compositions that deviate substan-
be seen and felt after the manufacturing process and Table 2
tially from the bulk material Ti64. The element distribution spec-
demonstrates very high roughness values for the as-built material.
trum shown in Fig. 5b) refers to such a darker spot, which is
The standard guidelines for the surface qualities for aerospace
marked with a white circle in Fig. 5a). In addition to the alloying
applications typically call for a surface roughness of Ra = 3.2 lm
components, a huge amount of oxygen, carbon and an unusual
or even lower for cast or wrought parts. Clearly, the roughness pro-
high amount of aluminium was measured. Therefore, the darker
vided in Table 2 by far exceeds this value. With regard to the plate
spots were identified to be aluminium oxide particles, which corre-
surface formerly facing the build plate and the opposite side, dif-
late with the blasting media sticking to the surface.
ferent roughness values were measured. The surface facing the
After vibratory grinding low surface roughness values were
build plate showed 20 % higher roughness values.
measured. This is also reflected by the micrograph in Fig. 6. Again
Fig. 2 shows SEM micrographs in two magnifications of the sur-
a significant removal of the partially molten particles and a very
face of an as-built plate. The micrograph in Fig. 2a) reveals a huge
smooth surface could be observed. At high magnification, however,
amount of partially molten powder particles, which still stick to
lots of roughness valleys can still be seen on the surface (Fig. 6).
the surface. Preliminary tests also showed these could not be
This is also reflected by the relatively high roughness values Rz
removed by blasting with pressurized air or by a treatment in an
and Rt, which generally indicate remaining roughness peaks or
ultrasonic bath. Due to these particles, the surface demonstrates
valleys.
an irregular, rough and irreproducible morphology.
Fig. 7a) shows an SEM micrograph of a plate surface after the
Fig. 2b) shows a higher magnification detail of the as-built sur-
micro machining process. The roughness was also significantly
face. The partially molten particles are clearly visible. Additionally,
decreased. The micrograph, which was taken from the upper side
a high waviness can be recognized between the particles on the as-
of the plate, demonstrates a very smooth surface without any par-
built surface, which contributes to the surface roughness as well.
tially molten particles on it. By contrast, the SEM image recorded
This waviness also led to deep furrows between the particles.
from the bottom side of the plate (Fig. 7b)), i.e. the one that was
Fig. 3 shows an etched cross section of an as-built LBM plate
facing the build plate during the manufacturing process still fea-
normal the build direction of the plate. As this was built at an angle
tured remaining roughness valleys.
of 45°, the microstructure as shown in Fig. 3a) also follows this
angle and the different layers of the build-up are visible. As previ-
ous studies have shown, hot isostatically pressed AM Ti64 parts
3.2. Fatigue performance
feature a lamellar a + b microstructure [6,7]. The higher magnifica-
tion in Fig. 3b) reveals both the partially molten particles and the
The fatigue results of the as-built samples are shown in Fig. 8a).
waviness of the surface contour. In some of the surface near
The samples failed within a range of 2  104 and 106 cycles. The
regions and particles, slight oxygen enrichment can be recognized
sample tested at 300 MPa was manually stopped after 3  107
as brighter areas.
cycles without failure (‘run-out’). Fig. 8b) shows two magnifica-
The averaged surface roughness values after the roughness opti-
tions of the fracture surface of the fatigue sample, which failed
mization by milling, blasting, vibratory grinding and micro
after 9.4  104 cycles at 400 MPa. The white rectangle shows the
machining are summarized in Table 2. In comparison to the other
area of crack initiation, and the high magnification detail demon-
treatments, blasting demonstrated the smallest roughness reduc-
strates that the crack nucleated from a roughness valley with a
tion of approximately 44%.
depth of approximately 100 lm. The furrow seems to lead even
By contrast, milling, vibratory grinding and micro machining
deeper into the bulk material. Crack initiation at the outer surface
reduced approximately 95% of the initial surface roughness. Within
contour could also be observed for all of the other fractured
these three processes, milling showed the lowest roughness values
samples.
with respect to Rz and Rt. In fact, Fig. 4a) shows an efficient removal
In order to investigate the influence of a surface roughness
improvement on the fatigue performance, different surface finish-
Table 2 ing processes were applied in the subsequent fatigue tests. The
Averaged surface roughness of LBM Ti-6Al-4V plates in as-built condition and after results of the milled, blasted, vibratory ground and micro
the corresponding surface finishing processes. machined samples are displayed in Fig. 9. Comparing Fig. 8a) and
Surface condition Ra, lm Rz, lm Rt, lm Fig. 9, it becomes obvious that all samples with improved surface
As-built 17.9 ± 2.0 121.9 ± 12.6 141.7 ± 11.7
conditions showed a substantial increase of the fatigue perfor-
Milled 0.3 ± 0.1 1.9 ± 0.8 2.9 ± 1.5 mance in comparison to the as-built samples.
Blasted 10.1 ± 0.2 73.4 ± 5.7 90.5 ± 6.2 Obviously the milled samples, which had the lowest roughness
Vibratory ground 0.9 ± 0.7 8.1 ± 5.4 17.4 ± 10.5 values, also showed the highest improvement of the fatigue perfor-
Micro machined 0.4 ± 0.3 4.1 ± 3.5 9.5 ± 8.0
mance. A large part of the milled samples failed within the range of
138 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142

Fig. 2. SEM micrographs of an as-built LBM Ti-6Al-4V plate surface; the two different magnifications (a + b) demonstrate a high amount of partially molten powder particles,
which stick to the surface and cause a high surface roughness [13].

Fig. 3. Optical micrograph of a cross-section of an as-built LBM Ti-6Al-4V plate. Figure a) and b) demonstrates two different magnifications of the etched surface; view
direction is normal to the build direction of the plates.

Fig. 4. SEM micrograph of a milled (a) and a blasted (b) LBM Ti-6Al-4V plate surface. In both cases the partially molten particles could efficiently be removed. The blasted (b)
surface still shows a high roughness with sharp edges resulting from the rough blasting media.

106 and 107 cycles, and two samples tested at 600 MPa and
775 MPa, were stopped after 3  107 cycles.
Within the blasted test series, two run-outs were obtained at
500 MPa and 525 MPa. In comparison to the as-built and milled
surfaces, the blasted samples showed a slightly higher scatter of
the fatigue lives. The vibratory ground samples demonstrated the
highest scatter and three run-outs were obtained at 400 MPa,
425 MPa and 575 MPa. The micro machined samples featured a
similar trend with little scattering and one run-out at 500 MPa.
Fig. 10 exemplary shows the fracture surfaces of one failed fati-
gue sample for each surface finishing process. The fracture surface
with the most prevalent crack initiation within each test series is
demonstrated. The initiation site is always marked by a white rect-
angle and by an arrow within the higher magnification image
below. Fig. 10a) shows the fractured surface of a milled sample,
which failed after 4.3  106 cycles at 800 MPa. Similar to the rest
of this sample series, the crack was initiated within the bulk mate-
rial and no crack initiation at the surface occurred.
Fig. 10b) shows a blasted sample, which failed after 2.0x105 -
cycles at 575 MPa. In this case, however, the crack was initiated
at the outer surface. In the higher magnification image, a deep
roughness valley is visible apart from the rough and wavy surface
contour around, where the failure initiated. Most of the other
blasted samples featured a similar crack nucleation site. In a few
 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142
Fig. 5. (a) Backscattered electron image and (b) EDX analysis of the blasted LBM Ti-6Al-4V surface; the EDX data were recorded from the area marked by the ring in a).
Fig. 6. SEM micrograph of a vibratory ground LBM Ti-6Al-4V plate surface
demonstrating remaining roughness valleys irregularly distributed over the surface.
instances, crack initiation was observed at a distance of approxi-
mately 200 lm below the outer surface. No correlation between
the failure cycle and the location of crack initiation was identified.
For the vibratory ground sample case, Fig. 10c) shows the frac-
ture surface after 47,200 cycles at 750 MPa. Similar to the blasted
sample, crack initiation is located at the surface contour. The
higher magnification image shows a roughness valley (white
arrow) initiating the fatigue failure. For the vibratory ground test
series, crack initiation could be typically attributed to remaining
furrows at the outer surface contour. Again, in a few cases near
sub-surface crack initiation was observed.
Fig. 7. SEM micrograph of LBM Ti-6Al-4V plate surfaces after micro machining: (a) shows the upper plate side with reference to the build plate, (b) shows the bottom of the
plate.
139
Fig. 10d) displays the fracture surface of the micro machined
sample, which failed after 1.2  105 cycles at 520 MPa. This sample
clearly failed due to a surface defect. In the higher magnification
image, the white arrow indicates the furrow, where the crack
was initiated. The remaining micro machined samples either failed
due to deep furrows as shown here or due to near-surface pores,
which were cut open by the material removal during the surface
finishing process. The two types can clearly be identified based
on the geometry of the cavity. A furrow has an irregular shape
and is non-circular. Pores show a near perfectly circular shape.
4. Discussion
In comparison to [14] and [28], the LBM plates built up within
this study show a very high surface roughness. The observed differ-
ences in the surface roughness between the plate side facing the
build plate and the opposite side can be referred to the so called
staircase effect, which is described in detail elsewhere [5,18,19].
Together with the notch effects caused by this high roughness, a
poor fatigue performance is obtained in comparison to forged
Ti64 parts [6]. This degradation of fatigue performance was also
demonstrated in previous studies [9,25].
Out of the applied mechanical surface finishing processes,
milling showed the best results with respect to roughness reduc-
tion and fatigue performance. This appears to be mainly an effect
of sufficient material removal, which erased all surface roughness
furrows and irregularities. This levelling of the surface features
was apparent both in the roughness values and the SEM micro-
graphs, which revealed the smoothest surface morphology
amongst all applied surface finishing procedures. The fatigue
performance is similar to the results of milled AM samples tested
140 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142
(a)
Fig. 8. (a) Fatigue results (R = 0.1) of hot isostatically pressed AM Ti-6Al-4V samples with as-built surface morphology (error bars for stress values are smaller than the size of
the symbols used), (b) SEM micrographs of the fracture surface of a sample, which failed at a maximum stress of 400 MPa, see main text for details.
Fig. 9. Fatigue results of hot isostatically pressed AM Ti-6AL-4V samples (R = 0.1)
after different surface treatments.
elsewhere [6,9,26] and it is alike comparable to the results
obtained for forged Ti64 material [1]. Two run-outs were obtained
at 600 MPa and 775 MPa. Slight differences to the literature data
might be caused by different sample geometries, testing conditions
and milling procedures. Moreover differences within the initial
manufacturing process might influence the final fatigue results as
well. The main disadvantage of the milling process is its limited
applicability to highly complex shaped AM built parts. Milling also
could be a time consuming process for complex shaped compo-
nents. The clamping of such parts might lead to additional process
steps. However, up to now milling is a mandatory process in case
of surface areas, which need a high accuracy and further
functionalities.
The blasted surfaces showed the smallest roughness improve-
ment, which can be attributed to the blasting process and in partic-
ular to the sharp-edged blasting media. The blasting media
reduced the amount of partially molten powder particles present
on the as-built surfaces but it also roughened the surface again.
Furthermore the blasting particles were partially pushed into the
bulk material as demonstrated by the EDX analysis. However, the
fatigue performance was still increased with a run-out at
(b)
525 MPa. This effect might be caused by an additional change in
the internal stresses due to the blasting process itself, finally
resulting in near-surface compressive stresses [27]. A comparable
increase in the fatigue behaviour due to compressive stresses
was previously also demonstrated for conventionally manufac-
tured Ti64 in [29].
The scatter of the fatigue results fits with the inhomogeneous
surface morphology due the remaining roughness and the pres-
ence of adherent particles. Both should lead to additional notch
effects on the surface. The adherent particles could be removed
by a final chemical pickling step. For a further roughness reduction
an additional blasting step with spherical particles (for example
glass beads) might be possible. For industrial applications, blasting
is a commonly used process for various surface finishing proce-
dures. It provides for relatively short treatment times and better
accessibility with respect to complex shaped parts than milling,
especially, if the blasting process is performed manually.
The vibratory ground samples also showed a significant rough-
ness reduction but the SEM micrographs revealed a huge amount
of roughness valleys, which remained on the surface. This indicates
an insufficient material removal. During the second process step,
no further roughness improvement was possible. Clearly, this
might be possible with an extended grinding process. However,
any further processing would go along with an increase in process-
ing time. An improvement of the surface morphology might also
increase the fatigue performance, where run-outs were achieved
at 400 MPa, 425 MPa and 575 MPa. The entire test series showed
a high scatter of the fatigue lives obtained. This can be attributed
to the surface defects, and thus, extended processing should reduce
also the scatter of the fatigue data. In comparison to the milling
and blasting, the main disadvantage of the vibratory grinding pro-
cess is the long treatment time necessary to reduce the high rough-
ness ranges. Similar to milling, the accessibility in case of complex
shaped areas is also very limited.
The micro machining process showed almost as good roughness
results as those of the milled samples. However, a fine polishing
step was necessary to achieve the low roughness values homoge-
neously for all surfaces. Without the fine polishing step, the mate-
rial removal was not high enough to remove all roughness valleys
sufficiently, i.e. similar to the features observed after vibratory
grinding. With micro machining, the fatigue performance could
substantially be improved and a run-out at 500 MPa was obtained.
As there were fewer remaining roughness valleys within the sur-
 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142 141

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
(

Fig. 10. Fracture surfaces at two different magnifications of failed Ti-6Al-4V fatigue samples pre-treated by (a) milling, (b) blasting, (c) vibratory grinding and (d) micro
machining.

face and these were less deep according to the roughness data, less
scatter in fatigue life was obtained than for the vibratory ground
samples. However, the detrimental effect on crack initiation of
the remaining roughness valleys was still present. As the basic
principles of micro machining and the vibratory grinding process
are similar, the same disadvantages apply with respect to treat-
ment time and the accessibility for complex shaped parts. Yet, a
better surface finish could be achieved by micro machining.
All surface finishing processes caused an improvement of the
fatigue performance. There is no simple correlation between
roughness values and fatigue life. Out of the three roughness val-
ues measured in this study, Rz might be most suitable to character-
ize the surface roughness as it takes the roughness valleys more
into account than in case of Ra. If the chosen surface finishing pro-
cess causes an insufficient material removal, the remaining rough-
ness valleys play a major role for the fatigue behaviour. Although
vibratory grinding and micro machining both achieved roughness
results of Ra < 1 lm, the micro machined samples overall obtained
a better fatigue performance due to less, respectively smaller
roughness valleys. This effect is reflected within the significantly
different Rz results and in turn it can be referred to the applied
material removal.
142 S. Bagehorn et al. / International Journal of Fatigue 102 (2017) 135–142
5. Conclusion
Additively manufactured metallic parts show a high surface
roughness and an irreproducible and inhomogeneous surface mor-
phology after the manufacturing process. In order to reduce the
roughness, different mechanical surface finishing processes were
investigated with respect to their effect on the surface morphology
and subsequent fatigue performance. Therefore, milling, abrasive
blasting, vibratory grinding and micro machining were applied
on flat plates, as well as on round fatigue samples. With respect
to the results, the following main conclusions can be drawn:
 As built LBM Ti64 samples show a high surface roughness
(Ra = 17.9 lm), which strongly depends on the build orientation
of the surfaces.
 Since Ti64 is sensitive to notches, the as built surface roughness
causes a poor fatigue performance of 300 MPa after 3x107
cycles.
 Out of the applied mechanical surface finishing processes,
milling achieved excellent results with respect to both, surface
roughness and fatigue life. In this case a decrease in surface
roughness (Ra = 0.3 lm) improved the fatigue performance to
775 MPa after 3  107 cycles.
 In case of the blasted samples, internal stress appears to play a
major role as the fatigue performance could be improved to
525 MPa after 3  107 cycles, despite the rough morphology
present after the process (Ra = 10.1 lm). The data obtained
demonstrates that fatigue life and the scatter in the data are
affected by surface roughness, notch effects and internal
stresses.
 Although all surface finishing processes achieved a substantial
roughness improvement and therefore also a superior fatigue
behaviour, there is no direct correlation between a specific
roughness value and fatigue life – especially, if the surface fin-
ishing process affects intrinsic material properties.
Acknowledgements
The present study was supported by the German aeronautic
research program (LuFo) within the framework of the project Gen-
FLY. The authors thank the project sponsor, as well as the corre-
sponding project partners.
References
[1] Campbell FC. Manufacturing technology for aerospace structural materials. 1st
ed. Great Britain: Elsevier Ltd.; 2006.
[2] Peters M, Leyens C. Titan und Titanlegierungen. 3rd ed. Weinheim: Wiley-
VCH; 2002. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9783527611089.
[3] Brandl E, Palm F, Michailov V, Viehweger B, Leyens C. Mechanical properties of
additive manufactured titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) blocks deposited by a solid-state
laser and wire. Mater Des 2011;32(10):4665–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.matdes.2011.06.062.
[4] Wycisk E, Kranz J, Emmelmann C. Fatigue Strength of light weight structures
produced by laser additive manufacturing in TiAl6V4. In: Proceedings of 1st
International Conference of the International Journal of Structural Integrity,
2012 June 15–28; Porto, Portugal.
[5] Sehrt JT. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen bei der generativen Herstellung
metallischer Bauteile durch das Strahlschmelzverfahren. Aachen: Shaker-
Verlag; 2010.
[6] Greitemeier D. Untersuchung der Einflussparameter auf die mechanischen
Eigenschaften von additiv gefertigtem TiAl6V4. Darmstadt: Springer Vieweg;
2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-15735-7.
[7] Vrancken B, Thijs L, Kruth J-P, Humbeeck JV. Heat treatment of Ti6Al4V
produced by selective laser melting: microstructure and mechanical
properties. J Alloy Compd 2012;541:177–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.jallcom.2012.07.022.
[8] Bagehorn S, Mertens T. Einfluss mechanischer und chemischer
Nachbehandlungsverfahren auf die Oberflächenmorphologie generative
gefertigter Ti-6Al-4V-Bauteile. Galvanotechnik 2016;6:1145–53.
[9] Kasperovich G, Hausmann J. Improvement of fatigue resistance and ductility of
TiAl6V4 processed by selective laser melting. J Mater Process Technol
2015;220:202–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2015.01.025.
[10] Stoffregen H, Butterweck K, Abele E. Fatigue analysis in selective laser melting:
review and investigation of thin-walled actuator housings. In: 25th Solid
Freeform Fabrication Symposium, 2014 Aug 4-6, Austin, USA.
[11] Chastand V, Tezenas A, Cadoret Y, Quaegebeur P, Maia W, Charkaluk E. Fatigue
characterization of titanium Ti-6Al-4V samples produced by additive
manufacturing. Procedia Structural Integrity 2016;2:3168–76. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.prostr.2016.06.395.
[12] Lewandowski J, Seifi M. Metal additive manufacturing: a review of mechanical
properties. Annu Rev Mater Res 2016;45(1):151–86. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1146/annurev-matsci-070115-032024.
[13] Bagehorn S, Mertens T, Seack O, Maier HJ. Reduction of the surface roughness
of additively manufactured metallic parts by enhanced electrolytic
smoothening. In: Proceedings of Rapid. Tech 2016 Conference, June 2016
14–16; Erfurt, Germany.
[14] Greitemeier D, Dalle Donne C, Syassen F, Eufinger J, Melz T. Effect of surface
roughness on fatigue performance of additive manufactured Ti–6Al–4V. Mater
Sci Technol 2016;32(7):629–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/
1743284715Y.0000000053.
[15] Liu YJ, Li SJ, Wang HL, Hou WT, Hao YL, Yang R et al. Microstructure, defects
and mechanical behavior of beta-type titanium porous structures
manufactured by electron beam melting and selective laser melting. Acta
Materialia. 113, pp 56–67, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2016.04.029.
[16] Critchlow G, Brewis D. Review of surface pretreatments for titanium alloys. Int
J Adhesion and Adhesives 1995;15(3):161–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
0143-7496(95)91627-I.
[17] Gong H, Rafi K, Starr T, Stucker B. Microstructures and mechanical properties
of Ti6Al4V parts fabricated by selective laser melting and electron beam
melting. J Mater Eng Perform 2013;22(12):3872–82. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1007/s11665-013-0658-0.
[18] Pyka G, Kerckhofs G, Papantoniou I, Speirs M, Schrooten J, Wevers M. Surface
roughness and morphology customization of additive manufactured open
porous Ti6Al4V structures. Materials 2013;6(10):4737–57. http://dx.doi.org/
10.3390/ma6104737.
[19] Abele E, Kniepkamp M. Analysis and optimisation of vertical surface roughness
in micro selective laser melting. Surf Topogr: Metrol Prop 2015;3:1–8. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1088/2051-672X/3/3/034007.
[20] DIN EN 6072. Aerospace series – Metallic materials – Test methods – Constant
amplitude fatigue testing, 2011.
[21] DIN EN ISO 4287. Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS) – Surface texture:
Profile method – Terms, definitions and surface texture parameters, 2010.
[22] Volk R. Rauheitsmessung – Theorie und Praxis. 2nd ed. Germany: Beuth; 2013.
[23] Gadelmawla E, Koura MM, Maksoud TMA, Elewa IM, Soliman HH. Roughness
parameters. J Mater Process Technol 2002;123(1):133–45. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/S0924-0136(02)00060-2.
[24] Oettel H, Schumann H. Metallografie. 15th ed. Germany: Wiley-VCH; 2011.
[25] Wycisk E, Solbach A, Siddique S, Herzog D, Walther F, Emmelmann C. Effects of
defects in laser additive manufactured Ti-6Al-4V on fatigue properties. Phys
Procedia 2014;56:371–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.phpro.2014.08.120.
[26] Chastand V, Tezenas A, Cadoret Y, Quaegebeur P, Maia W, Charkaluk E. Fatigue
characterization of Titanium Ti-6Al-4V samples produced by additive
manufacturing. Procedia Struct Integrity 2016;2:3168–76. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.phpro.2014.08.120.
[27] Ilscher B, Singer RF. Werkstoffwissenschaften und Fertigungstechnik. 5th
ed. Germany: Springer; 2010.
[28] Urlea V, Brailovski V. Electropolishing and electropolishing-related allowances
for powder bed selectively laser-melted Ti-6Al-4V alloy components. J Mater
Process Technol 2017;242:1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
jmatprotec.2016.11.014.
[29] Harper CA. Handbook of materials for product design. 3rd ed. USA: McGraw-
Hill; 2001.