The comparisons of mechanical properties and fracture behaviour between as-consolidated PM Ti-5553 alloy and as-cast IM Ti-5553 alloy were investigated through tensile, fracture toughness and impact toughness tests in this research. The slightly higher strength but much higher ductility and toughness can be identified in IM alloy specimens, which is also confirmed by the fracture behaviour of the specimens after mechanical tests. IM alloy specimens always exhibit the ductile dimple fracture mechanism in the different tests, while the fracture mechanism of PM alloy specimens indicates a high loading rate sensitivity, changing from the mixed ductile-brittle quasi-cleavage fracture into the brittle cleavage fracture mechanism accompanied by the remarkable decrease of impact toughness. The relatively low mechanical properties, especially the ductility and the brittle fracture behaviour of as-consolidated PM Ti-5553 alloy, are mainly explained by the differences in the initial microstructures between these two alloys.

Isothermal compression tests of Ti-5553 (Ti-5Al-5V-5Mo-3Cr) alloy, produced by a fast consolidation approach from blended elemental powder mixture, were performed on a Gleeble® 3800 thermal-physical simulator to investigate its hot deformation behaviour. The samples were compressed in a wide temperature range from 700 ºC to 1150 ºC and a moderate-high strain rate of 1 s-1, with the sample deformation degree of 30%, 50% and 70%, respectively. Flow instability occurred when the deformation temperature was less than 900 ºC. Dynamic recovery (DRV) accompanied by dynamic recrystallization (DRX) become the dominated mechanisms at the medium temperature range between 900 ºC and 1000 ºC, while almost only DRV features could be observed at high temperature (1050 ºC ~ 1150 ºC). Moreover, α phase globalization could be identified in the alloy deformed in (α+β) region. DRV, DRX, α globalization and the transformation of α to β phase were promoted with the increasing deformation degree.

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing technique which permits fabrication of three dimensional parts by selectively melting consecutive layers of metallic powder. This allows the production of parts with high geometrical complexity. Titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) is widely used in industry due to its high strength-to-mass ratio, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. SLM increases the application range of Ti64 because of its flexibility for prototyping any part and its low material waste. Nitriding is a diffusion-based thermo-chemical treatment for interstitial hardening of the surface of Ti64 alloy products. This study characterized the fatigue behaviour of SLM-produced Ti64 nitrided and annealed bars in as-built and machined surface conditions. The surface of the SLM-produced Ti64 parts after gas nitriding showed high values of micro-hardness up to 550 HV just below the surface. Fatigue testing was performed to assess the materials fatigue strength and fractographic imaging was used to examine fracture surface and nitride layer characteristics. Nitriding was found to reduce the fatigue strength of the samples to a similar level irrespective of being in the as-built or machined condition. The effect of nitriding on crack initiation and growth at various stress levels under fatigue loading was investigated.