scholarly journals Material Characterization, Thermal Analysis, and Mechanical Performance of a Laser-Polished Ti Alloy Prepared by Selective Laser Melting

Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Hang Li ◽  
Bing Wang ◽  
Cheng-Peng Ma ◽  
Zhi-Hao Fang ◽  
Long-Fei Chen ◽  
...  

The laser polishing technique offers an adaptable, accurate, and environmentally friendly solution to enhance the surface quality of additive manufactured metallic components. Recent work has shown that the surface roughness of laser additive manufactured metallic alloys can be significantly reduced via the laser polishing method. This paper examines the mechanical performances of a laser polished surface fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). Compared with the original SLM surface, systematic measurements revealed that the surface roughness of the laser polished surface can be effectively reduced from 6.53 μm to 0.32 μm, while the microhardness and wear resistance increased by 25% and 39%, respectively. Through a thermal history analysis of the laser polishing process using the finite element model, new martensitic phase formation in the laser polished layer is carefully explained, which reveals significant effects on residual stress, strength, and fatigue. These findings establish foundational data to predict the mechanical performance of laser polished metallic components fabricated by additive manufacturing methods, and pave the way for functional surface design with practical application via the laser process.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 760
Author(s):  
Dongqi Zhang ◽  
Jie Yu ◽  
Hui Li ◽  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Changhui Song ◽  
...  

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a layer by layer process of melting and solidifying of metal powders. The surface quality of the previous layer directly affects the uniformity of the next layer. If the surface roughness value of the previous layer is large, there is the possibility of not being able to complete the layering process such that the entire process has to be abandoned. At least, it may result in long term durability problem and the inhomogeneity, may even make the processed structure not be able to be predicted. In the present study, the ability of a fiber laser to in-situ polish the rough surfaces of four typical additive-manufactured alloys, namely, Ti6Al4V, AlSi10Mg, 316L and IN718 was demonstrated. The results revealed that the surface roughness of the as-received alloys could be reduced to about 3 μm through the application of the laser-polishing process, and the initial surfaces had roughness values of 8.80–16.64 μm. Meanwhile, for a given energy density, a higher laser power produced a laser-polishing effect that was often more obvious, with the surface roughness decreasing with an increase in the laser power. Further, the polishing strategy will be optimized by simulation in our following study.


Author(s):  
Filippo Simoni ◽  
Andrea Huxol ◽  
Franz-Josef Villmer

AbstractIn the last years, Additive Manufacturing, thanks to its capability of continuous improvements in performance and cost-efficiency, was able to partly replace and redefine well-established manufacturing processes. This research is based on the idea to achieve great cost and operational benefits especially in the field of tool making for injection molding by combining traditional and additive manufacturing in one process chain. Special attention is given to the surface quality in terms of surface roughness and its optimization directly in the Selective Laser Melting process. This article presents the possibility for a remelting process of the SLM parts as a way to optimize the surfaces of the produced parts. The influence of laser remelting on the surface roughness of the parts is analyzed while varying machine parameters like laser power and scan settings. Laser remelting with optimized parameter settings considerably improves the surface quality of SLM parts and is a great starting point for further post-processing techniques, which require a low initial value of surface roughness.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3603
Author(s):  
Tim Pasang ◽  
Benny Tavlovich ◽  
Omry Yannay ◽  
Ben Jakson ◽  
Mike Fry ◽  
...  

An investigation of mechanical properties of Ti6Al4V produced by additive manufacturing (AM) in the as-printed condition have been conducted and compared with wrought alloys. The AM samples were built by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Electron Beam Melting (EBM) in 0°, 45° and 90°—relative to horizontal direction. Similarly, the wrought samples were also cut and tested in the same directions relative to the plate rolling direction. The microstructures of the samples were significantly different on all samples. α′ martensite was observed on the SLM, acicular α on EBM and combination of both on the wrought alloy. EBM samples had higher surface roughness (Ra) compared with both SLM and wrought alloy. SLM samples were comparatively harder than wrought alloy and EBM. Tensile strength of the wrought alloy was higher in all directions except for 45°, where SLM samples showed higher strength than both EBM and wrought alloy on that direction. The ductility of the wrought alloy was consistently higher than both SLM and EBM indicated by clear necking feature on the wrought alloy samples. Dimples were observed on all fracture surfaces.


2021 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 107423
Author(s):  
Qing-song Song ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Yun-feng Wei ◽  
Xin-yi Zhou ◽  
Yi-fu Shen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Chao Ma ◽  
Jingzhou Zhao ◽  
Chezheng Cao ◽  
Ting-Chiang Lin ◽  
Xiaochun Li

It is of great scientific and technical interests to conduct fundamental studies on the laser interactions with nanoparticles-reinforced metals. This part of the study presents the effects of nanoparticles on surface tension and viscosity, thus the heat transfer and fluid flow, and eventually the laser melting process. In order to determine the surface tension and viscosity of nanoparticles-reinforced metals, an innovative measurement system was developed based on the characteristics of oscillating metal melt drops after laser melting. The surface tensions of Ni/Al2O3 (4.4 vol. %) and Ni/SiC (3.6 vol. %) at ∼1500 °C were 1.39 ± 0.03 N/m and 1.57 ± 0.06 N/m, respectively, slightly lower than that of pure Ni, 1.68 ± 0.04 N/m. The viscosities of these Ni/Al2O3 and Ni/SiC MMNCs at ∼1500 °C were 13.3 ± 0.8 mPa·s and 17.3 ± 3.1 mPa·s, respectively, significantly higher than that of pure Ni, 4.8 ± 0.3 mPa·s. To understand the influences of the nanoparticles-modified thermophysical properties on laser melting, an analytical model was used to theoretically predict the melt pool flows using the newly measured material properties from both Part I and Part II. The theoretical analysis indicated that the thermocapillary flows were tremendously suppressed due to the significantly increased viscosity after the addition of nanoparticles. To test the hypothesis that laser polishing could significantly benefit from this new phenomenon, systematic laser polishing experiments at various laser pulse energies were conducted on Ni/Al2O3 (4.4 vol. %) and pure Ni for comparison. The surface roughness of the Ni/Al2O3 was reduced from 323 nm to 72 nm with optimized laser polishing parameters while that of pure Ni only from 254 nm to 107 nm. The normalized surface roughness reduced by nearly a factor of two with the help of nanoparticles, validating the feasibility to tune thermophysical properties and thus control laser-processing outcomes by nanoparticles. It is expected that the nanoparticle approach can be applied to many laser manufacturing technologies to improve the process capability and broaden the application space.


Author(s):  
Mennatallah F El Kashouty ◽  
Allan EW Rennie ◽  
Mootaz Ghazy ◽  
Ahmed Abd El Aziz

Manufacturing process constraints and design complexities are the main challenges that face the aftermarket automotive industry. For that reason, recently, selective laser melting (SLM) is being recognised as a viable approach in the fabrication of injection moulding tool inserts. Due to its versatility, SLM technology is capable of producing freeform designs. For the first reported time, in this study SLM is recognized for its novel application in overcoming fabrication complexities for prism shaped topology of a vehicle headlamp’s reflector injection moulding tool insert. Henceforth, performance measures of the SLM-fabricated injection mould tool insert is assessed in comparison to a CNC-milled counterpart to improve quality characteristics. Tests executed and detailed in this paper are divided into two stages; the first stage assesses both fabricated tool inserts in terms of manufacturability; the second stage assesses the functionality of the end-products by measuring the surface roughness, dimensional accuracy and light reflectivity from the vehicle reflectors. The results obtained show that employing SLM technology can offer an effective and efficient alternative to subtractive manufacturing, successfully producing tool inserts with complex surface topology. Significant benefits in terms of surface roughness, dimensional accuracy and product functionality were achieved through the use of SLM technology. it was concluded that the SLM-fabricated inserts products proved to have relatively lower values of surface roughness in comparison to their CNC counterparts.


Author(s):  
Bilal Hussain ◽  
A. Sherif El-Gizawy

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is one of the important Additive Manufacturing techniques for building functional products. Nevertheless, the absence of accurate models for predicting the SLM process behavior, delays development of cost effective and defects free process. This work presents a coupled thermo-mechanical numerical model to capture the two phase (solid-liquid) solidification melting phenomena that occur in the process. The proposed model will also predict the evolvement of process-induced properties and defects particularly residual stresses caused by temperature gradient and thermal stresses. CO2 or Nd:YAG laser beam can be used as a heat source with a Gaussian distribution for the laser beam energy.


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