Assessment of the Mechanical Properties of AlSi10Mg Parts Produced through Selective Laser Melting Under Different Conditions

Abstract

Additive manufacturing technologies of metals are gaining increasing interest due to several advantages; among these processes the selective laser melting (SLM) is of particular interest for industrial applications. Despite the clear advantages related to this technique, there are some issues that still hamper a mainstream industrial application of SLM, one is the repeatability of the process. It is well known that varying, for instance, the building direction or the position in the building chamber the components obtained show different microstructures and mechanical properties, several authors are trying to develop processing routes aiming to increase the repeatability of the process. Another issue is the fact that different SLM equipment, produced by different manufacturers, even if the process parameters adopted are the same will lead to the production of components with slightly different properties. These differences are due to small differences among the different equipment, for instance the gas used in the chamber or the way the laser is delivered. The scope of this work is to investigate the mechanical properties of AlSi10Mg components produced with different SLM machines: EOS M400, SLM 280 and RENISHAW AM400. Aiming to assess which are the differences and try to find a range of properties that can be assumed for SLMelted parts. Tensile specimens, designed according to ASTM standard, were printed with the above-mentioned equipment and tensile tests were carried out. The results obtained showed that slight differences can be outlined among the different samples and a range of tensile properties has been also proposed.