Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technology was used to produce samples based on the Ti-6Al-4V alloy for biomedical applications. Solid-state phase transformations induced by thermal treatments were studied by neutron diffraction (ND), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Although, ND analysis is rather uncommon in such studies, this technique allowed evidencing the presence of retained β in α' martensite of the as-produced (#AP) sample. The retained β was not detectable by XRD analysis, nor by STEM observations. Martensite contains a high number of defects, mainly dislocations, that anneal during the thermal treatment. Element diffusion and partitioning are the main mechanisms in the α ↔ β transformation that causes lattice expansion during heating and determines the final shape and size of phases. The retained β phase plays a key role in the α' → β transformation kinetics.
Keywords: Ti alloys; X-ray diffraction; additive manufacturing; energy-dispersive spectroscopy; neutron diffraction; phase transformations; scanning transmission electron microscopy; thermal treatments.