Effects of Ni-based powder reuse on porosity, surface quality and reproducibility of thin-walled structures in Laser Powder Bed Fusion process

Abstract

Inconel 718 alloy parts were manufactured by a laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) process using virgin and reused nickel-chromium powder produced by an argon gas atomization. PBF-LB is an emerging technology for the additive manufacturing of metallic end-products with complex shapes. At the same time, optimization of the PBF-LB parameters and powder reuse/recycling evaluation are required to achieve high-quality manufactured superalloy products for a critical manufacturing sector, such as aeronautical and aerospace applications. This paper focused on studying the effects of virgin and reused powders after 10 iterations on the powder properties and material density, surface roughness/topography of the PBF-LB-built superalloy parts, as well as repeatability of thin-walled structures. Results showed that the oxygen content and particle size of the reused powder increased. In addition, the micro-porosity and surface roughness values varied depending on the amount of reused powder. The quality and repeatability of the thin-walled structures are improved after increasing the number of builds.