Effect of process parameters settings and thickness on surface roughness of EBM produced Ti-6Al-4V

Purpose – Ti‐6Al‐4V is one of the most attractive materials being used in aerospace, automotive and medical implant industries. Electron beam melting (EBM) is one of the direct digital manufacturing methods to produce complex geometries of fully dense and near net shape parts. The EBM system provides an opportunity to built metallic objects with different processing parameter settings like beam current, scan speed, probe size on powder, etc. The purpose of this paper is to determine and understand the effect of part's thickness and variation in process parameter settings of the EBM system on surface roughness/topography of EBM fabricated Ti‐6Al‐4V metallic parts.Design/methodology/approach – A mathematical model based upon response surface methodology (RSM) is developed to study the variation of surface roughness with changing process parameter settings. Surface roughness of the test slabs produced with different parameter settings and thickness has been studied under confocal microscope. Response surface...