Additive Manufacturing of Ti-Alloys for Aerospace, Naval and Offshore Applications

Abstract

Titanium alloys are well-known by their excellent corrosion resistance and high strength-to-weight ratio. The aerospace industry has been taking advantage of those properties and enhancing them with novel manufacturing techniques such as Additive Manufacturing (AM). However, the naval and offshore industry has very limited use of those benefits. This is mainly due to technical limitations such as small-scale parts and low deposition rates of the most common AM processes. This work presents a review of the state-of-the-art in AM and its applications, in which relevant publications related to this important area of investigation are considered. Initially, titanium is described as the main alloy. The Laser Engineered Net-Shape (LENS TM ), Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM @ ) and Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) processes are presented. Given that WAAM offers potential solutions for size and deposition rates with design challenges and new materials for component fabrication, at the end of the chapter, applications from the naval and offshore areas where this method is used are shown.