Laser remelting of Ti6AL4V using high power diode laser

Titanium alloys present excellent mechanical and corrosion properties, being widely employed in different industries such as medical, aerospace, automotive, petrochemical, nuclear and power generation, etc. Ti6Al4V is the α-β alloy most employed in industry. The modification of its properties can be achieved with convectional heat treatments and/or with laser processing. Laser remelting (LR) is a technology applied to Ti6Al4V by other authors with excimer and Nd-Yag laser with pure argon shielding gas to prevent risk of oxidation. In the present contribution, laser remelting has been applied for the first time to Ti6Al4V with a high power diode laser (with pure argon as shielding gas). Results showed that remelted samples (with medium energy densities) have higher microhardness and better corrosion resistance than Ti6Al4V base metal.