Additive Manufacturing of Titanium Alloys

The applications of titanium alloys are restricted by the difficulty and high cost of machinery by conventional manufacturing processes. Additive manufacturing (AM), as the emerging advanced manufacturing technologies, can manufacture metallic components with high three-dimensional accuracy through a layer-by-layer approach, thereby providing a near net-shape processing for titanium alloys. This article firstly describes the fundamentals of metal additive manufacturing then introduces the recent research progress in AM of a variety of titanium alloys and their composites in solid and porous structures, in terms of the microstructure, defects and resulting mechanical properties as well as corrosion behavior. The current progress indicates that AM is an ideal platform to manufacture titanium alloys with enhanced both static and dynamic mechanical properties and favorable corrosion resistance.