scholarly journals The Effect of Selective Laser Melting Process Parameters on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Al6061 and AlSi10Mg Alloys

Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Maamoun ◽  
Yi Xue ◽  
Mohamed Elbestawi ◽  
Stephen Veldhuis

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers customization of the microstructures and mechanical properties of fabricated components according to the material selected and process parameters applied. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a commonly-used technique for processing high strength aluminum alloys. The selection of SLM process parameters could control the microstructure of parts and their mechanical properties. However, the process parameters limit and defects obtained inside the as-built parts present obstacles to customized part production. This study investigates the influence of SLM process parameters on the quality of as-built Al6061 and AlSi10Mg parts according to the mutual connection between the microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties. The microstructure of both materials was characterized for different parts processed over a wide range of SLM process parameters. The optimized SLM parameters were investigated to eliminate internal microstructure defects. The behavior of the mechanical properties of parts was presented through regression models generated from the design of experiment (DOE) analysis for the results of hardness, ultimate tensile strength, and yield strength. A comparison between the results obtained and those reported in the literature is presented to illustrate the influence of process parameters, build environment, and powder characteristics on the quality of parts produced. The results obtained from this study could help to customize the part’s quality by satisfying their design requirements in addition to reducing as-built defects which, in turn, would reduce the amount of the post-processing needed.

Author(s):  
Ahmed Maamoun ◽  
Yi Xue ◽  
Mohamed Elbestawi ◽  
Stephen Veldhuis

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers customization of microstructure and mechanical properties of fabricated components according to the material selected, and process parameters applied. Selective laser melting (SLM) is the commonly used technique for processing high strength aluminum alloys. Selection of SLM process parameters could control the microstructure of parts and their mechanical properties. However, the process parameters limit and defects obtained inside the as-built parts present obstacles to customized part production. This study investigates the influence of SLM process parameters on the quality of as-built Al6061 and AlSi10Mg parts according to the mutual connection between the microstructure characteristics and mechanical properties. The microstructure of both materials was characterized for different parts processed over a wide range of SLM process parameters. The optimized SLM parameters were investigated to eliminate the internal microstructure defects. The behaviour of mechanical properties of parts was presented through regression models generated from the design of experiment (DOE) analysis for the results of hardness, ultimate tensile strength, and yield strength. A comparison between the results obtained and that reported in the literature is presented to illustrate the influence of process parameters, build environment, and powder characteristics on the quality of parts produced. The results obtained from this study could help to customize the part’s quality by satisfying their design requirements in addition to reducing the as-built defects which in turn reduce the amount of the post-processing needed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 698 ◽  
pp. 333-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim Sh. Sufiiarov ◽  
Evgenii V. Borisov ◽  
Igor A. Polozov

The results of the research on selective laser melting process of the Inconel 718 superalloy powder under conditions of additive manufacturing of parts for special purposes are presented. The influence of process parameters on the quality of manufactured parts is shown. Process parameters which allow manufacturing parts with the density close to 100%, are determined. Also, the results of mechanical tests and investigation of microstructure are presented.


Author(s):  
Ahmed H. Maamoun ◽  
Yi F. Xue ◽  
Mohamed A. Elbestawi ◽  
Stephen C. Veldhuis

Additive manufacturing (AM) provides customization of the microstructure and mechanical properties of components. Selective laser melting (SLM) is the commonly used technique for processing high strength Aluminum alloys. Selection of SLM process parameters could control the microstructure of fabricated parts and their mechanical properties. However, process parameter limits and defects inside the as-built parts present obstacles to customized part production. This study is the second part of a comprehensive work that investigates the influence of SLM process parameters on the quality of as-built Al6061 and AlSi10Mg parts. The microstructure of both materials was characterized for different parts processed over a wide range of SLM process parameters. The optimized SLM parameters were investigated to eliminate the internal microstructure defects. Mechanical properties of the parts were illustrated by regression models generated with design of experiment (DOE) analysis. The results reported in this study were compared to previous studies, illustrating how the process parameters and powder characteristics could affect the quality of produced parts.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Maamoun ◽  
Yi Xue ◽  
Mohamed Elbestawi ◽  
Stephen Veldhuis

Additive manufacturing (AM) of high-strength Al alloys promises to enhance the performance of critical components related to various aerospace and automotive applications. The key advantage of AM is its ability to generate lightweight, robust, and complex shapes. However, the characteristics of the as-built parts may represent an obstacle to the satisfaction of the parts’ quality requirements. The current study investigates the influence of selective laser melting (SLM) process parameters on the quality of parts fabricated from different Al alloys. A design of experiment (DOE) was used to analyze relative density, porosity, surface roughness, and dimensional accuracy according to the interaction effect between the SLM process parameters. The results show a range of energy densities and SLM process parameters for AlSi10Mg and Al6061 alloys needed to achieve “optimum” values for each performance characteristic. A process map was developed for each material by combining the optimized range of SLM process parameters for each characteristic to ensure good quality of the as-built parts. This study is also aimed at reducing the amount of post-processing needed according to the optimal processing window detected.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (18) ◽  
pp. 28749-28757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atefeh Aramian ◽  
Zohreh Sadeghian ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Javad Razavi ◽  
Konda Gokuldoss Prashanth ◽  
Filippo Berto

Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1228
Author(s):  
Junjie Jiang ◽  
Jianming Chen ◽  
Zhihao Ren ◽  
Zhongfa Mao ◽  
Xiangyu Ma ◽  
...  

With superior flexible manufacturing capability, selective laser melting (SLM) has attracted more and more attention in the aerospace, medical, and automotive industries. However, the poor quality of the lower surface in overhanging structures is still one of the factors that limits the wide application of SLM. In this work, the influence of process parameters and scanning strategy on the lower surface quality of SLMed TA15 (Ti-6Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V) titanium alloy parts were studied. The results showed that the laser surface energy density (EF) had a significant influence on the quality of the lower surface. Excessive EF led to obvious sinking of the molten pool and a serious slag hanging phenomenon. However, the too low EF easily contributed to the insufficient powder fusion in the lower surface area, which led to the agglomeration of a molten pool during core processing, resulting in slag hanging, pores, and powder spalling that reduced the quality of the lower surface. Moreover, the cross-remelting strategy and non-remelting strategy gained better surface quality at the low EF and high EF, respectively. In addition, it was found that the quality of the lower surface could be quickly and accurately evaluated by the cooling time of the molten pool during the processing of the lower surface. This research can increase the understanding of the forming mechanism of the lower surface and has certain guiding significance for the process optimization of the lower surface.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Yang ◽  
Dingyong He ◽  
Zengjie Wang ◽  
Zhen Tan ◽  
Hanguang Fu ◽  
...  

Purpose In this research, the highly dense bulk Cu-5Sn alloy specimens were fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM). This study aims to establish the relationship between laser power (LP), scanning speed (SS) and hatch space (HS) with surface roughness (Ra) and density. To obtain Cu-5Sn alloy formed parts with high strength and low surface roughness. The microstructure and mechanical properties of SLMed Cu-5Sn were investigated. Design/methodology/approach The relative density (RD) was optimized using the response surface method (RSM) and analysis of variance. First, the Ra of SLMed formed specimens was studied to optimize the forming process parameters with a good surface. Then, the dense specimens were studied by ANOVA and the RSM to obtain dense specimens for mechanical property analysis. Findings Dense specimens were obtained by RSM and ANOVA. The tensile properties were compared with the casted specimens. The yield and ultimate strengths increased from 71 and 131 MPa for the cast specimens to 334 and 489 MPa for the SLMed specimens, respectively. The ductility increased significantly from 11% to 23%, due to the refined microstructure of the SLMed specimens, as well as the formation of many twin crystals. Originality/value The Ra, RD and mechanical properties of SLM specimens Cu-5Sn were systematically studied, and the influencing factors were analyzed together. This study provides a theoretical and practical example to improve the surface quality and RD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1161 ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Abbas Razavykia ◽  
Eugenio Brusa ◽  
Sina Ghodsieh ◽  
Lorenzo Giorio

The Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is one of the most demanding additive manufacturing(AM) processes, although it assures some superior advantages in producing complex structural componentsand applies to a wide range of materials. The control of SLM parameters is crucial to guaranteethe quality of manufactured component. The steep thermal variation in part during the SLM processinduces some undesired effects, such as warping, residual thermal stresses and microcracks,as wellas geometrical instability. Effectively predicting the influence of process parameters upon the productquality of part made by SLM is extremely useful in the earliest steps of design, especially whena higher productivity is required. Particularly, thermal simulation is used to suitably calibrate someprocess parameters, to improve efficiency and reduce defects. Besides, such simulation is exploited toimprove the heat transfer between the bed and the first product layer, to reduce thermal stress and theoverall product deformation. This study exemplifies how numerical modeling of temperature distributionin a wind turbine blade made by SLM allows predicting the dimensional stability. The Design ofExperiments (DoE) and ANOVA analysis helped in studying effects on the product geometric stabilityand deformation, of some process parameters, as powder layer thickness, hatch space and laser scanspeed.


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