Abstract
Titanium is a light metal and finds application majorly in the aerospace and bio medicals. This paper presents the influence of scanning speed and energy density on the evolving microstructure and microhardness of laser deposited Ti6Al4V/Cu composites. The laser power, powder flow rates and gas flow rates were kept constant while varying the scanning speed. From the microscopic analysis, α acicular structures were found growing from the top of the cross section of the composite and broke into the β-phase and the grain boundary of the (α+β) phase, and found to disappear gradually as the scanning speed increases. Widmanstettan was also found in all the samples. Sample S21 of energy density 240 J/mm2 deposited with a laser power of 1200 W and a scanning speed of 5 mm/secs shows the highest hardness value of 541±20 HV0.5 while Sample S27 of energy density of 48 J/mm2 deposited with a laser power of 1200 W and a scanning speed of 25 mm/secs shows the lowest hardness value of 405±12 HV0.5. This was attributed to the Cu content added and plays a vital role in stabilizing and strengthening the β-phase.