Research Letters in Materials Science
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 34737, 4 pages
doi:10.1155/2007/34737
Research Letter

Freeform Fabrication of Titanium Aluminide via Electron Beam Melting Using Prealloyed and Blended Powders

Denis Cormier, Ola Harrysson, Tushar Mahale, and Harvey West

Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27695-7906, NC, USA

Received 28 October 2007; Accepted 27 December 2007

Academic Editor: Rui Vilar

Copyright © 2007 Denis Cormier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Titanium aluminide (TiAl) is an intermetallic compound possessing excellent high-temperature performance while having significantly lower density than nickel-based superalloys. This paper presents preliminary results of experiments aimed at processing TiAl via the electron beam melting (EBM) process. Two processing routes are explored. The first uses prealloyed powder, whereas the second explores controlled reaction synthesis. Issues such as processing parameters, vaporization of alloying elements, microstructure, and properties are discussed.