Effect of process parameters on the formation of single track in pulsed laser powder bed fusion

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) of metallic materials as a promising manufacturing technology. Although most L-PBF systems utilize laser beams with continuous wave emission (L-PBF(CW)), the possibility of using pulsed lasers (L-PBF(P)) has become available in some industrial L-PBF machines over the past few years. Previous studies suggest that the use of pulsed lasers could enable larger control of heat input and melt pool formation during the process, and could thus enable improvement of spatial resolution and feature sizes in L-PBF. In this study, the experiments were implemented using a pulsed laser in combination with continuous scanning movement instead of the ‘point-and-shoot’ method typically used by industrial L-PBF(P) machines of today. The experiments were executed using a trial L-PBF system (IPG ytterbium fiber laser, wavelength 1075 nm) for gas-atomized stainless steel 316L powder on compositionally similar substrates. Single tracks were melted with three different pulse lengths (50, 100, and 200 µs) by using a constant layer thickness of 50 µm, while varying pulse repetition rate, scanning speed and laser power based on six preset values of volume energy density (VED) of 36-120 J/mm3. In order to allow a comparison to be made, additional samples were manufactured by using the CW emission of the same laser. It was observed that the L-PBF(P) samples yielded narrower tracks in comparison to the samples manufactured using CW emission. In addition, the results of the experiments show that, while maintaining constant VED values, decreasing the pulse length or scanning speed decreased the widths of the tracks and their penetration into the substrate. Consequently, it was noticed that shorter pulse lengths require more overlap between consecutive pulses in order to produce continuous tracks. Pulsed emission shows potential for improving the spatial resolution of the L-PBF process.