Thermal Modeling of 304L Stainless Steel for Selective Laser Melting: Laser Power Input Evaluation

Author(s):  
Diego Augusto de Moraes ◽  
Aleksander Czekanski

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process is a Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) technique, which has shown significantly growth in the recent years. The demand for this process is justified by the versatility and ease in manufacturing the parts from 3D models as well for the increased complexity of engineered parts generated from topology or shape optimization. Automotive, aerospace, medical and aviation industries are taking great advantage of this process due the unique geometry characteristics found in the components. To enhance the benefits of SLM, a vital task is to analyze the laser power input impact on the temperature distribution through the powder bed, important for posterior residual stresses analysis. The Finite Element Method proposed in this study is a transient thermal model, able to predict temperature distribution through different sections of the powder bed when performing a single track of the laser scanning. Furthermore, the impact of the laser power input is carried out utilizing SS 304L, a low cost Stainless Steel alloy that can be employed in the SLM process, in order to determine the influence on the temperature distribution along the different cross sections.

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (16-19) ◽  
pp. 1744015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeng Zheng ◽  
Lianfeng Wang ◽  
Biao Yan

Selective laser melting (SLM) was used to prepare 316L stainless steel parts and the effects of laser power on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the final products were studied. With increasing applied laser power, the defects of as-built parts were reduced greatly and the as-built parts presented a highest relative density of 99.1%. The tensile strength of samples was significantly improved from 321 ± 10 MPa to 722 ± 10 MPa. The microhardness was homogeneous; the residual stresses in the samples were tensile, which were higher in the section perpendicular to the laser scanning strategy. The probable reasons for this phenomenon were proposed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 100904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin T. Sutton ◽  
Caitlin S. Kriewall ◽  
Ming C. Leu ◽  
Joseph W. Newkirk ◽  
Ben Brown

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4157
Author(s):  
Hongyao Shen ◽  
Jinwen Yan ◽  
Xiaomiao Niu

A three dimensional finite element model (FEM) was established to simulate the temperature distribution, flow activity, and deformation of the melt pool of selective laser melting (SLM) AZ91D magnesium alloy powder. The latent heat in phase transition, Marangoni effect, and the movement of laser beam power with a Gaussian energy distribution were taken into account. The influence of the applied linear laser power on temperature distribution, flow field, and the melt-pool dimensions and shape, as well as resultant densification activity, was investigated and is discussed in this paper. Large temperature gradients and high cooling rates were observed during the process. A violent flow occurred in the melt pool, and the divergent flow makes the melt pool wider and longer but shallower. With the increase of laser power, the melt pool’s size increases, but the shape becomes longer and narrower. The width of the melt pool in single-scan experiment is acquired, which is in good agreement with the results predicted by the simulation (with error of 1.49%). This FE model provides an intuitive understanding of the complex physical phenomena that occur during SLM process of AZ91D magnesium alloy. It can help to select the optimal parameters to improve the quality of final parts and reduce the cost of experimental research.


MRS Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (44-45) ◽  
pp. 2431-2439
Author(s):  
N. Iqbal ◽  
E. Jimenez-Melero ◽  
U. Ankalkhope ◽  
J. Lawrence

ABSTRACTThe microstructure homogeneity and variability in mechanical properties of 316L stainless steel components fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) have been investigated. The crack free, 99.9% dense samples were made starting from SS316L alloy powder, and the melt pool morphology was analysed using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Extremely fast cooling rates after laser melting/solidification process, accompanied by slow diffusion of alloying elements, produced characteristic microstructures with colonies of cellular substructure inside grains, grown along the direction of the principal thermal gradient during laser scanning. In some areas of the microstructure, a significant number of precipitates were observed inside grains and at grain boundaries. Micro hardness measurements along the build direction revealed slight but gradual increase in hardness along the sample height. Uniaxial tensile tests of as manufactured samples showed the effect of un-melted areas causing scatter in room-temperature mechanical properties of samples extracted from the same SLM build. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) varied from 458MPa to 509MPa along with a variation in uniform elongation from 3.3% to 14.4%. The UTS of a sample exposed to the Cl- rich corrosion environment at 46oC temperature revealed a similar strength as of the original sample, indicating good corrosion resistance of SLM samples under those corrosion conditions.


Author(s):  
Yong Deng ◽  
Zhongfa Mao ◽  
Nan Yang ◽  
Xiaodong Niu ◽  
Xiangdong Lu

Although the concept of additive manufacturing has been proposed for several decades, momentum of selective laser melting (SLM) is finally starting to build. In SLM, density and surface roughness, as the important quality indexes of SLMed parts, are dependent on the processing parameters. However, there are few studies on their collaborative optimization in SLM to obtain high relative density and low surface roughness simultaneously in the previous literature. In this work, the response surface method was adopted to study the influences of different processing parameters (laser power, scanning speed and hatch space) on density and surface roughness of 316L stainless steel parts fabricated by SLM. The statistical relationship model between processing parameters and manufacturing quality is established. A multi-objective collaborative optimization strategy considering both density and surface roughness is proposed. The experimental results show that the main effects of processing parameters on the density and surface roughness are similar. It is noted that the effects of the laser power and scanning speed on the above objective quality show highly significant, while hatch space behaves an insignificant impact. Based on the above optimization, 316L stainless steel parts with excellent surface roughness and relative density can be obtained by SLM with optimized processing parameters.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 3720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatevik Minasyan ◽  
Sofiya Aydinyan ◽  
Ehsan Toyserkani ◽  
Irina Hussainova

The laser power bed fusion approach has been successfully employed to manufacture Mo(Si,Al)2-based composites through the selective laser melting of a MoSi2-30 wt.% AlSi10Mg mixture for high-temperature structural applications. Composites were manufactured by leveraging the in situ reaction of the components during printing at 150–300 W laser power, 500–1000 mm·s−1 laser scanning speed, and 100–134 J·mm−3 volumetric energy density. Microcomputed tomography scans indicated a negligible induced porosity throughout the specimens. The fully dense Mo(Si1-x,Alx)2-based composites, with hardness exceeding 545 HV1 and low roughness for both the top (horizontal) and side (vertical) surfaces, demonstrated that laser-based additive manufacturing can be exploited to create unique structures containing hexagonal Mo(Si0.67Al0.33)2.


Friction ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongqin Ding ◽  
Qing Tang ◽  
Yi Zhu ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Huayong Yang

AbstractCavitation erosion degrades the performance and reliability of hydraulic machinery. Selective laser melting (SLM) is a type of metal additive manufacturing technology that can fabricate metal parts directly and provide lightweight design in various industrial applications. However, the cavitation erosion behaviors of SLM-fabricated parts have rarely been studied. In this study, SLM 316L stainless steel samples were fabricated via SLM technology considering the scanning strategy, scanning speed, laser power, and build orientation. The effect of the process parameters on the cavitation erosion resistance of the SLM-fabricated 316L stainless steel samples was illustrated using an ultrasonic vibratory cavitation system. The mass loss and surface topography were employed to evaluate the surface cavitation damage of the SLM-fabricated 316L stainless steel samples after the cavitation test. The cavitation damage mechanism of the SLM-fabricated samples was discussed. The results show that the degree of cavitation damage of the sample fabricated via SLM with a few defects, anisotropic build direction, and columnar microstructure is significantly decreased. Defects such as pores, which are attributed to low laser power and high scanning speed, may severely aggravate the cavitation damage of the SLM-fabricated samples. The sample fabricated via SLM with a low laser power and exposure time exhibited the highest porosity and poor cavitation erosion resistance. The cellular structures are more prone to cavitation damage compared with the columnar structures. A sample with a high density of grain boundaries will severely suffer cavitation damage.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Črtomir Donik ◽  
Jakob Kraner ◽  
Irena Paulin ◽  
Matjaž Godec

We have investigated the impact of the process parameters for the selective laser melting (SLM) of the stainless steel AISI 316L on its microstructure and mechanical properties. Properly selected SLM process parameters produce tailored material properties, by varying the laser’s power, scanning speed and beam diameter. We produced and systematically studied a matrix of samples with different porosities, microstructures, textures and mechanical properties. We identified a combination of process parameters that resulted in materials with tensile strengths up to 711 MPa, yield strengths up to 604 MPa and an elongation up to 31%, while the highest achieved hardness was 227 HV10. The correlation between the average single-cell diameter in the hierarchical structure and the laser’s input energy is systematically studied, discussed and explained. The same energy density with different SLM process parameters result in different material properties. The higher energy density of the SLM produces larger cellular structures and crystal grains. A different energy density produces different textures with only one predominant texture component, which was revealed by electron-backscatter diffraction. Furthermore, three possible explanations for the origin of the dislocations are proposed.


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