XRD reveals titanium nitride formation in laser-based additive manufacturing

Coatings are often desirable to tailor device performance in additive-manufactured (3D-printed) components.  This work describes synchrotron diffraction studies of 3D laser melting of Ti showing the growth and evolution of Ti nitrides under laser-induced melting of titanium.

Surface and Coatings Technology 378, 124955 (2019).
"Titanium and Nitrogen Interactions under Laser Additive Manufacturing Conditions"

Congyuan Zeng, Hao Wen, Henry Bellamy, Phillip Sprunger, Paul J. Schilling, S.M. Guo

Abstract:
To understand how to make bulk titanium parts or coatings with desired levels of titanium nitrides, this paper investigates the dynamic interactions between titanium and nitrogen under representative laser-based additive manufacturing (AM) conditions. Under a set of gas environments containing different concentrations of nitrogen, the titanium and nitrogen reaction products—formed under typical Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) AM scanning conditions—are examined for compositions, phases, and microstructures. In-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD) test is performed to reveal the high temperature reaction steps between titanium and nitrogen.