Experimental Investigation on the EBM-Based Additively Manufactured Prismatic Nickel-Titanium SMA Components

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) of the nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys (SMA) have provided novel component solutions with a variety of design configurations in the industry. Electron beam melting (EBM) is a trending metal additive manufacturing process for industrial applications in the field of biomedical and aerospace engineering. In this study, experimental investigations were conducted to reveal the effect of processing conditions on the microstructure and hardness properties of EBM-fabricated nickel-titanium components. Furthermore, detailed microstructural characterizations were performed with a scanning electron microscope, EDS, and XRD for unveiling of the microscopic structure and phase analysis during the layer by layer solidification. The experimental results were systematically evaluated for the powder and the bulk prismatic components, respectively.