Surface characteristic of Ti-6Al-4V alloy fabricated by Electron Beam Melting prepared by different surface post treatments

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) is a technique in constant growth that offers freedom in design in the production of complex shape components. However, it is well documented that most types of material failures in the AM parts are very sensitive to their surface properties. Hence, in this work, some surface post-treatments such as grinding, drag finishing and Surface Mechanical Treatment (SMT) are used as post-treatment processes to improve the performance of Ti-6Al-4V samples fabricated by the Electron Beam Melting technique. The influences of different post-treatment were investigated on the surface properties. The outcomes demonstrated that the SMT has- the highest efficiency in the surface treatment and could reduce surface roughness, increase hardness and improve wettability. This work demonstrates the potential of SMT to achieve favourable surface properties of AM metallic components.