Laser engineered net shaping for the acquisition of porous and dense structures using nanoparticles

Abstract

This paper presents a research study on the influence of process parameters to obtain porous and/or dense structures using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS). Laser power, scan speed, hatch/raster spacing and powder feed rate are considered to be the most influential parameters on the structure and mechanical characteristics of materials processed using LENS. Therefore, these parameters have been varied to obtain vital information about the possibilities that the LENS system offers. Influence of process parameters on the structure of the porous structure, density, as well as columnar grain growth has been analysed. It has been verified that laser power and powder feed rate have the largest influence on the hardness of porous samples, while raster spacing in combination with powder feed rate dictate the level of pore connectivity.