| Abstract Scope |
Effectively all alloys currently used for printing are cubic, which means they freeze with <001> biased towards the temperature gradient direction. Moreover, epitaxial growth from the base metal dominates, which sets up a classic growth competition. Naively, one might then expect all prints to exhibit a strong <001> fiber texture parallel to the build direction (BD), given that heat extraction is generally unidirectional through the base plate. The typically strong elastic anisotropy would then result in the BD being more compliant than in the plane. Remembering, however, that prints comprise thousands of welds threading the volume in different directions, the weak textures generally obtained are a consequence of the wide range of local growth directions. Phase transformation, e.g., Ti, further disperses orientation. Exploiting 3D printing to control anisotropy via texture therefore requires subtle methods to control the local growth direction(s), which will be illustrated by experiment & simulation. |