Researchers from University of Duisburg-Essen and Saarland University, both in Germany; City University of Hong Kong; and IMDEA Materials Institute, Madrid, Spain recently published a paper in Progress in Additive Manufacturing focused on the AM potential of the Ti60-Zr15-Cu17-S8 alloy in medical applications.

The study used the rePowder ultrasonic atomiser from Amazemet Sp Zoo, based in Warsaw, Poland, to produce spherical and flowable powders with a crystalline microstructure, suitable for Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing.

TEM and XRD analyses revealed amorphous microstructures in laser-treated surfaces, while SEM and EDX highlighted correlations between crystalline phase formation and melt pool dynamics, enabling the fabrication of dense bulk samples with tailored properties.

The researchers believe that their findings promote further research on the processability in commercial metal PBF-LB Additive Manufacturing machines focusing on optimising the purity of powder material, in-situ crack stability and amorphicity.

A detailed analysis of possibly occurring beneficiary effects of pre-heating temperatures and optimised scan strategies as well as an analysis of the laser–material interaction by experimental and computational approaches are said to be planned; the adaptation for other material classes with comparable glass-forming ability can be approached.

‘Novel titanium-based sulfur-containing BMG for PBF-LB/M’ is available here, in full.