Selective Laser Melting Process Analysis

This assignment delves into the intricacies of the selective laser melting (SLM) process. It analyzes how laser power, scan speed, and energy density influence the formation and characteristics of the melt pool. The impact of these parameters on surface roughness, hardness, and overall component properties is also discussed. The analysis highlights the relationship between process parameters and the resulting microstructure, emphasizing the significance of controlling these variables for achieving desired material properties.

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EFFECTS OF LASER SCAN SPEED ON POROSITY AND DIMENSIONAL CHANGE OF
THE SELECTIVE LASER MELTING COMPONENTS.
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Introduction
Aluminum alloy and selective laser melting.
Over the years previous, the 3d that is also known as the fabrication of the substance has led to
the increase of the interest that will complicate it in the industry and the scholarly. more had been
done on the AM innovation with the result distribution that includes the ISO and the ASTM
guideline survey papers, books unique AM diaries and report guides.in contradiction to the
normal assembling approaches, am gives the geometry without misuse of the materials and
increasing the cost.in most metals, the system of the AM that is the specific laser liquefying has
been the commonly used mostly and this can link to the general application ranges that is from
3D to mechanical design with the low volume me.
in the selective laser melting a tiny portion of the metal powder is then dispersed at first, and the
melting will be specifically done laser shaft within the environment. Similarly, in the
examination of one layer, that stage has to be stopped by that one layer thickness and the powder
is to be spread on the upper part of the metals (Gu, 2012).
Literature review
In most of the work had indicated that the aluminium alloy processing by the selective laser
melting has been so cumbersome, by this the production of understandable components is done
under high laser power of about 130w to 150w and with laser scanning speed that is slow. Most
of the selective laser melting machine has higher power but that of the laser power is greater than
it thus a significant factor.by combining the higher power and the reduction of the speed leads to
melting thus forming a pool of the melted products that become very difficult to control. This
will eventually lead to the balling of the melt and the power distribution system might be

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damaged. With the increase in power and reduction of the scanning speed, there will be the
increase in the built time and cost of manufacturing (LEVY, 2009).
Additive manufacturing
This is a process by which the metal layers are joined together to form a CAD model through the
building of objects, this done by combining several layers together. This process is also known
as the standard tessellation language, where the shapes of the materials and the size of the
components are defined. The data files are slice into the single layers by the software thus the
additive manufacturing receives it as the instructions. The technology of the additive
manufacturing uses the material in powder form. When the components have been manufactured,
several activities have to take place e.g. it has to be polished, filled, cured, or painted with
regards to the materials used (Kumar, 2006).
Advantages of the additive manufacturing
It is important as it uses small extraneous components to produce portions of the object thus an
efficient process which reduces the waste during the manufacturing.
By using less material during production this method reduces the steps of production thus
reducing the amount of the energy consumed (Kumar, 2006).
This method of production involves less waste thus the materials being used is not wasted during
the manufacturing process thus an environmentally friendly process.
This technique allows the producers to create a prototype. This will eventually save time, in
times of production and development thus reducing the requirements during production leading
to the use of few tools.

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With the reduction of the instructors, moulding and the required tools there will be the reduction
in the cost of the manufacturing.
The additive manufacturing technique allows for the innovation of the designs. The
modifications of the design can be done anytime without extra cost.
This technique can help in the reduction of the design complexity. The manufacturing using this
traditional method can also be simply modified by this method (Murr, 2011).
Application of the additive manufacturing
Automobile industry
The automotive industries require the development of new products. Since the development of
the new products are very costly the industry has resorted to the use of the additive
manufacturing technique in the designing and to develop automotive materials, the structure and
the functioning parts of the components like the gearbox, drive shaft, drive shaft of the vehicle,
and wheels (Kumar, 2006).
Biomedical applications
The additive manufacturing is a process that saves the life in the medical industry. The expansion
of the applications of the additive manufacturing technology in the industry brought about by the
development of the biologic science, biomaterials, and biomedicine has improved the use of this
technology in the industry. The area of applications is, in the dental application, painted organs
and in the bioprinting.
Electronics industry

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Since the electronic products are reduced in terms of size and needs a high precision tool for the
production, the industry uses this technology for the manufacturing of such products.it is also
applied in the manufacturing of the embedded electronics, as it exists in the embedded frequency
identification and object made of metals (Qian, 2015).
Selective laser melting -materials, process parameters
This is additive manufacturing new technology that comes up in the 1981 and has been
consistently developed through different research.it began by 3D CAD file data being sliced into
layers that lead to the formation of an image of layers of 2D in every layer. The files of the
sliced data intern passed to the software package. The parameters, values and the report are then
designed by the software. AM machine then is allowed to build the file in SLM. In the selective
laser melting a tiny portion of the metal powder is then dispersed at first, and the melting will be
specifically done laser shaft within the environment (Gu, 2012). Similarly, in the examination of
one layer, that stage has to be stopped by that one layer thickness and the powder is to be spread
on the upper part of the metals. The soft covering and the combination of the layers in the
process are made together to form tough 3-D section.
Process Parameters in SLM
The parameter that influences the proper being of the selective laser melting is numerous.one
can, therefore, understand this parameter by doing a correct analysis of these parameters, hence
obtain the appropriate mechanisms in the designing process. The selective laser melting is
required a larger number of parameter that affects the productivity of the last product. Some of
the parameters the influences the process are, laser beam, the speed of scanning, the spacing of
the hatch, properties of the powder, the thickness of the layer and chamber temperature.

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Scanning pattern: this is an important parameter to the process. This where the hatches are
arranged in a proper way among the layers. The patterns can be moved in different ways
depending the originality of the designer. The patterns are repeated in every layer regardless of
the scanning.
Laser power, scanning speed and density of the speed: the determination of other parameters of
the process is based on the selection of the laser powder which is related to the size of the focus
of the laser spot. The optimization of the energy density depends on the fine parameter turning,
quality and the properties of the parameter that are involved in the process. The density of the
energy is the ratio of the average energy applied to the volume of the material. This will
eventually influence the last part of the process (Chen, 2011).
Given as;
Where P=Laser power (W), V=scan speed (mm/s).
Size, the shape of the powder and distribution of particles: the distribution of the particles, shape
and size of the powder plays an important part of the process. The distribution of the size
particles refers to the amount of particle according to their ranges of the size. This is important as
it gives the ratio of the bigger particles to that of the smaller particles, hence determines the rate
of flow of the particles.in the selective laser technique, the layer thickness is to be smaller and
the size of the grain should not be larger than the thickness of the layer. This can also influence
the flow of the particle hence affect the SLM process.
Temperature: in the building chamber, the temperature inside can consequently affect the process
of selective laser melting. This must be accurately managed to obtain the desired outcome. The

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selection of this temperature will depend on the materials used in the processing. For the best
outcome, the temperature should be high and distributed uniformly.
Atmosphere: with the higher temperature and being of the oxygen in processing chamber may
lead to oxidation.to correct this the environment should be protected to avoid decarburization
hence reducing the toughness of the components. This will influence the mechanical property
e.g. Ductility. With the presence of oxygen in the chamber, there will be the influence of the
final product of the processing. But with the lowering of the temperature, there with be the rise in
carbon ii oxide formation which is attached to the metals that are solidifying hence creating the
bubbles of the gas. Some recommended gases can be used to limit the amount of oxygen gas in
the chamber e.g. argon, helium and nitrogen (Murr, 2011).
Porosity characterization
This is one of the most important parameters that influence the reliability and the execution of
the metals part during the processing. Several methods have been used to determine the
measurement of the portion in terms of its volume and the dispersion of the porosity inside the
fabricated substance ALSi10Mg.an example is water relocation technique, 2D SEM, and
3DXbeam microtomography.
Results and discussion
At high amplification, the accelerated inter metallic stages are on the are on the powder
surface.in the examination of the EDS spot between the metals give a breakdown Mg mass to
about 12% that remains close but somehow less than 16% of AL18Fe7Si10 phase. The reason
for Mg focus that is lower in the small analysis is that the measurement of the metals compared
with electron collaboration volume. The general building of the examination can be added due to

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the moderate decrease in the Mg focus. This will, in turn, reduce the focus to a particular degree.
The powder particles comprise certain pores. With this, there can be an influence on the part of
the final product. The spreading conduct of the powder can also be influenced by the satellites.
The estimation of the molecules that were found divided by the dendrite arm from a normal
pattern. The dendrite arm that is optional dividing changed from (0.4 to 4) for the measurements
of the molecules was from (4 to 140).
Conclusion:
The dissolution of the size of the pool and the rate of the cooling can be effectively seen in the
Rosenthal condition.
The microstructure of the selective laser melting and the powder gas that is atomized used by the
selective laser melting is in conjunction with the connection between the rate of cooling and the
hardening size of the microstructure in light conventional aluminium silicon compounds.
AL2O3 contains oxides that are staying separated imperfection in relation to the pores is built by
the selective laser melting (Kumar, 2006).
Even though some melt pool is not predictable we can simply conclude that the width of the melt
pool, its depth and the height might increase with laser power, but with speed of the scanning it
decreases and for the density of the energy it increases. The hardness of the component is seen as
the result of the laser energy density. The surface roughness also has the significant role in the
melt pool as uneven surface lead to the larger amount of the balling effects. Also, lower powder
and a fast scan can also lead very low energy.
A lot of Small individuals balls are formed at high energy as at this point long lifetime of the
excessive pool with low velocity is seen.

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Due to the fluctuations in the speed of the scanning the melt pool of the powder case is bigger
and rounded at the beginning and at the final stage while at the end there is no melt pool
formation and the melt pool of no powder case is narrow and rounded at the start (LEVY, 2009).

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Gibson, B., 2014. Additive Manufacturing. Brisbane: Springer.
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