Study of the Surface and Dimensional Quality of the AlSi10Mg Thin-Wall Components Manufactured by Selective Laser Melting

Paolo Gaudenzi,Saleem Riaz,Hassan Elahi,Muhammad Waqas,Dingyong He,Marco Eugeni

doi:10.3390/jcs5050126

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), a 3D printing technique that manufactures components by sequential addition of powder, has massively reshaped the manufacturing and engineering sectors from batch production to manufacturing customized, innovative, state-of-the-art, and sustainable products. Additive manufacturing of aluminum alloys by selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the latest research trends in this field due to the fact of its advantages and vast applications in manufacturing industries such as automobiles and aerospace. This paper investigated the surface and dimensional quality of SLM-built AlSi10Mg parts using a response surface method (RSM) and found the influence of the wall thickness and process parameters (i.e., laser power, scanning speed, hatch distance) on the pieces. Thin-walled test specimens of AlSi10Mg alloy were manufactured with different combinations of process parameters at three wall thicknesses: 1.0 mm, 2.0 mm, and 3.0 mm. The Minitab DOE module was used to create 27 different configurations of wall thickness and process parameters. The samples’ surface roughness and dimensional accuracy were investigated, and the findings were evaluated using the ANOVA technique. The regression model and the ANOVA technique showed high precision and had a particular reference value for practical engineering applications.

Highlights

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, along with newly developed alloys and conventional manufacturing processes, possess the ability to transform the method of production of industrial products
This study aimed to investigate the effect on the surface and dimensional quality of selective laser melting (SLM)-built test specimens of various combinations of laser power, scan speed, hatch distance, and wall thicknesses
The selection of suitable process parameters is very significant for accomplishing the best results from the SLM technique

Summary

Introduction

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, along with newly developed alloys and conventional manufacturing processes, possess the ability to transform the method of production of industrial products. AM methods are often mentioned as layered manufacturing, owing to the nature of the procedure which involves layer-by-layer fabrication of a part while using CAD data from a computer [1,2,3]. AM is a generally used term in the manufacturing industry, but autofab (auto fabrication), freeform manufacturing, powder metallurgy, stereo lithography, layer-based manufacturing, and 3D printing are commonly used terminologies while referring to additive manufacturing [2]. In the late 1980s, manufacturing industries started using additive manufacturing techniques to produce prototypes of their products for the purpose of assessing the difficulties associated with their geometry, design, and form along with their usefulness.

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