Influence of Silicon Carbide on Direct Powder Bed Selective Laser Process (Sintering/Melting) of Alumina

The powder bed selective laser process (sintering/melting) has revolutionised many industries, including aerospace and biomedicine. However, PBSLP of ceramic remains a formidable challenge. Here, we present a unique slurry-based approach for fabricating high-strength ceramic components instead of traditional PBSLP. A special PBSLP platform capable of 1000 °C pre-heating was designed for this purpose. In this paper, PBSLP of Al2O3 was accomplished at different SiC loads up to 20 wt%. Several specimens on different laser powers (120 W to 225 W) were printed. When the SiC content was 10 wt% or more, the chemical interaction made it difficult to process. Severe melt pool disturbances led to poor sintering and melting. The structural analysis revealed that the micro-structure was significantly affected by the weight fraction of SiC. Interestingly, when the content was less than 2 wt%, it showed significant improvement in the microstructure during PBSLP and no effects of LPS or chemical interaction. Particularly, a crack pinning effect could be clearly seen at 0.5 wt%.

Fabrication of superhydrophilic surfaces for long time preservation on 316L stainless steel by ultraviolet laser etching

Due to the good biocompatibility, 316L stainless steel is widely used in the manufacture of medical instru-ments and human implants. The super hydrophilic 316L steel surface is used for reducing friction and adhe-sion. By choosing appropriate laser process parameters 316L steel surfaces with super-hydrophilic were ob-tained. The effects of laser process parameters including repeat frequency, pulse width, scanning speed, and the number of scanning were investigated to find the relationship between surface microstructure and wet-ting ability. To investigate the super-hydrophilic maintenance time on the textured surface, the textured sur-faces were preserved in ambident air, distilled water, and absolute ethanol. The results showed that by choosing appropriate laser process parameters surface with super-hydrophilicity can be maintained for 30 days.

Optimization of Laser Parameters and Dimple Geometry Using PCA-Coupled GRG

Stainless steel (SS316L) is applied in numerous fields due to its intrinsic properties. In this study, micro-dimples were fabricated on SS316L. The effects of laser process parameters, such as frequency, average power, and pulse duration, on the average dimple diameter, dimple distance, and dimple depth were studied using an L9 orthogonal array. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multi-objective optimization technique, principal-component-analysis-coupled grey relational grade (GRG), was used to optimize laser process parameters on output responses. The optimal machining parameter settings obtained for the highest GRG peak value of 0.2642 are 15 kHz (frequency), 12 W (average power), and 1500 ns (pulse duration). The ANOVA results showed that average power is the most influential factor, contributing 86.40 % to performance measures (average dimple diameter (φ), dimple distance (d), and depth (l). Moreover, the effect of process parameters was studied using mean effect plots, and the micro-dimple quality was analysed using SEM micrographs.

Powder bed selective laser process (sintering/melting) applied to tailored calcium phosphate-based powders

This paper focuses on the tailoring of calcium phosphate powders for their use as powder bed selective laser process feedstock. Hydroxyapatite and chlorapatite were used as starting powders for the preparation of different blends through the addition of graphite as a laser absorptance additive. A methodical study was conducted to compare the processing windows of the blends containing different amounts of graphite through the laser patterning of circular samples. It was found that the addition of graphite increases the process window of the powder blends being the powder without additive non processable. Hydroxyapatite showed a clear phase transition (decreased when using higher volumetric energy density) into other calcium phosphate phases while chlorapatite was demonstrated to be thermally stable during the whole process (examined through X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopies). In parallel, the study evaluating the powder blend composed of hydroxyapatite and graphite for the production of solid and complex parts was carried out although it required long printing times. The productivity of the process was improved by modification of printing parameters. Then, a series of solid samples were produced for the analysis of the microstructure and mechanical properties. High interconnected porosity was observed in the samples which could improve the bioactivity of the bioceramic scaffolds. A post-treatment of the parts increased their proportion in the hydroxyapatite phase and their mechanical properties. These results are expected to contribute to the application of powder bed selective laser processing of calcium phosphates powders toward bone tissue engineering.

Effect of As-Built and Ground Surfaces on the Fatigue Properties of AlSi10Mg Alloy Produced by Additive Manufacturing

The present work concerns the influence of surface (machined, as-built) on the fatigue resistance of AlSi10Mg produced by a powder-bed laser process. The competition between defects and surface roughness is assessed by using Kitagawa-type diagrams. Samples are printed along three directions: 0°, 45° and 90°. After axial fatigue tests with a load ratio of R = −1, all the fracture surfaces are carefully analysed. The initiation sites can be (i) a defect, (ii) the surface roughness, (iii) the surface ripple. The results indicate that ground surfaces lead to the same fatigue life as as-built surfaces. It is also shown that T6 treatment improves the fatigue resistance. However, when specimen surfaces are as-built or ground, it is difficult to correlate the fatigue results with ‘isolated defect size analysis’ neither roughness parameter for an as-built surface. Therefore, microstructure, residual stresses or multiple initiation should be further analysed to understand the results.

In-Process Height Displacement Measurement Using Crossed Line Beams for Process Control of Laser Wire Deposition

We propose the use of the line section method with crossed line beams for the process control of laser wire deposition. This method could be used to measure the height displacement in front of a laser spot when the processing direction changes. In laser processing, especially laser deposition of metal additive manufacturing, the laser process control technique that controls the processing parameters based on the measured height displacement in front of a laser processing spot is indispensable for high-accuracy processing. However, it was impossible to measure the height displacement in front of a processing laser spot in a processing route in which the processing direction changes as the measurement direction of the conventional light-section method comprising the use of a straight-line beam is restricted although the configuration is simple. In this paper, we present an in-process height displacement measurement system of the light-section method using two crossed line beams. This method could be used to measure the height displacement in a ±90° direction by projecting two crossed line beams from the side of a laser processing head with a simple configuration comprising the addition of one line laser to the conventional light-section method. The height displacement can be calculated from the projected position shift of the line beams irrespective of the measurement direction by changing the longitudinal position on the crossed line beams according to the measurement direction. In addition, the configuration of our proposed system is compact because the imaging system is integrated into the processing head. We could measure the height displacement at 2.8–4 mm in front of a laser processing spot according to the measurement direction by reducing the influence of intense thermal radiation. Moreover, we experimentally evaluated the height displacement measurement accuracy for various measurement directions. Finally, we evaluated continuous deposition in an “L” shape wherein the deposition direction was changed while using a laser wire direct energy deposition machine for the laser process control based on the in-process height displacement measurement result. We achieved highly accurate continuous deposition at the position wherein the processing direction changes despite the acceleration and deceleration of the stage by laser process control.

Laser process parameter optimization of dimple created on oriented carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites

It was mainly aimed at the study to make the optimization of laser parameters to obtain dimples with the desired shape and size. Carbon Fiber EPOXY composite (CF-EPOXY) surfaces were ablated by Nd:YAG laser which has a 1064 nm wavelength. Some important laser process parameters such as focus position, pulse energy, duration and number were optimized to achieve maximum aspect ratio, circular shape and minimum thermal defect. In addition, it has been determined that which laser parameters are more effective to obtain the desired quality surface. These different shapes and geometry of dimples could be used to improve some properties such as wettability, friction, etc. The pulse energy with an effective rate of 55.97 % is the most effective parameter to achieve the larger aspect ratio. The focus position is the most effective parameter with the rates of 66.18 % and 47.94 % to obtain both perfect circularity and minimum thermal defects respectively. Confirmation experiments were performed and the highest aspect ratio was found as 1.14, the best circular dimple and the minimum thermal effects outside the spot area were found with the rates of 1.021. These are the optimum results of 9 experiment sets in this study for each output. The results were supported by confirmation experiments and regression analysis. It can be concluded that the Taguchi method is reliable and saves time and materials.