Ricerc@Sapienza

Selective laser melting is, at present, one of the
fastest growing additive manufacturing technologies. It allows
the manufacture of functional components characterized by
high complex geometries with engineering-grade metals.
Notwithstanding, it is employed in many industries such as
aerospace, automotive, biomedical, and defense; a great limitation
for its diffusion is the obtainable surface quality. This
work aims to improve the surface of Ti6Al4V parts produced
by this technology through barrel finishing. It is a mass

Additive manufacturing is now capable of delivering high-quality, complex-shaped metallic components. The titanium alloy Ti6Al4V is an example of a printable metal being broadly used for advanced structural applications. A sound characterization of static mechanical properties of additively manufactured material is crucial for its proper application, and here specifically for Ti6Al4V. This includes a complete understanding of the influence of postprocess treatment on the material behavior, which has not been reached yet.

Selective laser melting (SLM) enables the production of metal complex shapes that are difficult or impossible to obtain with conventional production processes. However, the attainable surface quality is insufficient for most applications; thus, a secondary finishing is frequently required. Barrel finishing is an interesting candidate but is often applied without consistent criteria aimed at finding processing parameters.