On optimization of surface roughness of selective laser melted stainless steel parts: A statistical study
Abstract
In this work, the effects of re-melting parameters for postprocessing the surface texture of Additively Manufactured parts using a statistical approach are investigated. This paper focuses on improving the final surface texture of stainless steel (316L) parts, built using a Renishaw SLM 125 machine. This machine employs a fiber laser to fuse fine powder on a layer-by-layer basis to generate three-dimensional parts. The samples were produced using varying angles of inclination in order to generate range of surface roughness between 8 and 20 µm. Laser re-melting (LR) as post-processing was performed in order to investigate surface roughness through optimization of parameters. The re-melting process was carried out using a custom-made hybrid laser re-cladding machine, which uses a 200 W fiber laser. Optimized processing parameters were based on statistical analysis within a Design of Experiment framework, from which a model was then constructed. The results indicate that the best obtainable final surface roughness is about 1.4 µm ± 10%. This figure was obtained when laser power of about 180 W was used, to give energy density between 2200 and 2700 J/cm2 for the re-melting process. Overall, the obtained results indicate LR as a post-build process has the capacity to improve surface finishing of SLM components up to 80%, compared with the initial manufactured surface.Citation
Alrbaey, K., Wimpenny, D., Tosi, R., Manning, W. and Moroz, A., (2014). 'On optimization of surface roughness of selective laser melted stainless steel parts: a statistical study'. Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 23(6), pp. 2139-2148.Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Journal of Materials Engineering and PerformanceDOI
10.1007/s11665-014-0993-9Additional Links
http://hdl.handle.net/2086/10074https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11665-014-0993-9
Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
1059-9495EISSN
1544-1024ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s11665-014-0993-9