Laser induced hydrophobicity on the TI6AL4V additive manufacturing parts

Abstract

The widespread adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) is always challenged by the quality of the AM part. In the current context many efforts are focusing on the internal quality such as porosity, mechanical properties and dimensional accuracy but not on the external quality such as surface quality. To explore the application additive manufacturing in industry, there is a need to improve the AM parts’ surface quality such as wettability. In this study, micro surface structures are produced on Ti6Al4V AM parts by laser processing. The optimized laser parameters can help produce the hybrid structures on AM surface that exhibit hydrophobic property. The as-built surface achieving controllable wettability would be an attractive topic in the AM industry.