Powder-Based Additive Manufacturing of Ti ₂AlNb Alloys: A Review of Processes, Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Ti2AlNb alloy, a new generation of low-density titanium aluminide intermetallic compound, possesses excellent high-temperature strength, creep resistance, and moderate density, making it a promising candidate for high-temperature aerospace structural components. Powder-based additive manufacturing technology provides an effective approach for fabricating high-performance Ti2AlNb components, featuring high design freedom, efficient forming, and a controllable microstructure. This paper systematically reviews the research progress of powder-based additive manufacturing of Ti2AlNb alloys, focusing on three mainstream powder-based processes, including Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Selective Electron Beam Melting (SEBM), and Direct Laser Deposition (DLD). The regulation effect of the extreme non-equilibrium thermal cycle during powder-based additive manufacturing on the alloy microstructure is analyzed, and the correlation between process parameters and mechanical properties of components is summarized. Meanwhile, the key challenges in this field are identified, such as the difficulty in completely eliminating typical forming defects, insufficient precision of microstructure regulation, and a lack of theoretical guidance for process optimization. Finally, combined with technological development trends, future research directions are prospected from the aspects of defect control, microstructure, and mechanical property regulation, as well as engineering application.

Keywords

Ti2AlNb alloy / Powder-based additive manufacturing / Microstructure / Mechanical properties

Author Contributions

P.L.: Investigation, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Z.Z.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. L.J.: Validation.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Data availability is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Funding

This research was funded by the Key Research and Development Project of Shaanxi Province (No. 2025CY-YBXM-579, No. 2025CY-GJHX-17), the Research Project of Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research (No. 0601YK2520), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52304387), the Shaanxi Provincial Young Science and Technology Star Project under the Innovation Talent Promotion Program (No. 2025ZC-KJXX-95), and the Innovation Capability Support Program of Shaanxi (No. 2023-CX-TD-54).

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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