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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Gas versus plasma atomized powder in laser powder bed fusion of Grade 5 Ti6Al4V: Processing characteristics and mechanical properties

Jordan Hatch1 ,  Alex Hicker1 ,  Chris Liu1 ,  Alex Montelione1 ,  Reid Schur1 ,  Cory Cunningham2 ,  Mamidala Ramulu1,2 ,  Dwayne D. Arola1,2*
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1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States of America
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington Seattle, WA, United States of America
MSAM, 026030001 https://doi.org/10.36922/MSAM026030001
Received: 15 January 2026 | Revised: 14 May 2026 | Accepted: 27 May 2026 | Published online: 15 June 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) of metal components by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) has become a viable method of manufacturing in various industries. However, new challenges are emerging, including the high cost of powder feedstock and concerns associated with its reuse. Here, L-PBF was performed with two commercial sources of Grade 5 Ti6Al4V, including commercial plasma-atomized (PA) and gas-atomized (GA) powders. The overall objective was to evaluate differences in the quality, spatial variations in mechanical properties of metal produced with the PA and GA powders over a series of six builds, and to assess if GA powder could be used to replace PA powder for cost savings. The mechanical properties were characterized in uniaxial tension considering powder type, reuse and location within the build envelope. Results showed that the yield and ultimate tensile strength of metal produced with GA powder were significantly lower than that produced with PA powder (p ≤ 0.05). In addition, spatial variation in the mechanical properties was greatest for the GA powder. The lower strength and greater spatial variation in printing with GA powder appears related to the larger quantity of fines and powder particle satellites, which promote porosity. Overall, the findings indicate that components built with GA powder would: (i) require separate optimization of the printing parameters relative to those used for PA powder, and/or (ii) require additional post-processing to achieve the same performance as those built with PA powder.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Laser powder bed fusion
Gas atomized
Plasma atomized
Powder
Porosity
Spatial variations
Strength
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge that support for this investigation was received from The Boeing Company through the Boeing Advanced Research Collaboration. Partial support was also received from the Federal Aviation Administration through the Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials in Transport Aircraft Structures (AMTAS). Part of this work was supported by the Washington Nanofabrication Facility/Molecular Analysis Facility, a National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) site at the University of Washington with partial support from the National Science Foundation via awards NNCI-1542101 and NNCI-2025489.
Conflict of interest
Dwayne D. Arola serves as the Associate Editor of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
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