Effect of interface shear strength on the support removal of laser powder bed fusion manufactured gear-type Ti6Al4 V parts

Abstract

The present study investigated the influence of interface shear strength on the support removal effort without deviating the dimensional accuracy of laser powder bed fusion processed gear-type parts. The finite element method simulations were carried out to evaluate the effect of different process parameters of support structures on the distortion of laser powder bed fusion processed parts. Additionally, the dimensional accuracy of manufactured parts was assessed using a non-contact three-dimensional white light scanning technique. Support structures are the inevitable features in the laser powder bed fusion process. A simple in-house technique is adopted to evaluate the interface shear strength of support removal using a mechanical torque wrench. The support structures were fabricated with four different laser power and scanning speed. The results showed that all the laser powder bed fusion parts had insignificant dimensional deviation compared to the computer-aided design model despite changing the process parameters (laser power and scanning speed). However, the results indicated that ∼60% interface shear strength could be reduced with optimized process parameters which are favourable for easy part removal after printing.