Effects of Parameters on Surface Roughness of Metal Parts by Selective Laser Melting

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is the effects of laser process parameters on surface roughness of metal parts built by selective laser melting. The main processing parameters used to control the surface roughness of melted layers are laser power, scanning velocity and overlap ratio. In our work, an orthogonal experimental design was employed to find the changing rules of the surface roughness through changing SLM processing parameters. The results show that the overlap ratio is the most important factor to affect the surface roughness. When the overlap ratio is below 50%, the surface roughness value of melted layers will decrease with laser power density increasing. When the overlap ratio is higher than or equal to 50%, the surface roughness value increases with the laser power density increasing. The optimal parameters of laser power 143W, scanning velocity 5m/min and overlap ratio 30% can be used to achieve melted layers with the best surface quality in our experiments, and the roughness value increases with slicing thickness increasing and the surface bias angle decreases.