Sustainable production of AlSi10Mg parts by laser powder bed fusion process

Abstract

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) is an additive manufacturing technology that allows producing complex and lightweight parts without the use of specific tooling during the building process. However, despite continuous developments, some problems limit its use in series production. To introduce these systems in mass production, it is necessary to solve the problems and exceed the limits related to the requirements of industrialization: higher productivity, less material consumption, less over-production, and less waste, greater stability of the process, and higher quality of the final components. In this study, good practices to reduce resource consumption are presented. The production rate of the L-PBF technique was increased to produce AlSi10Mg alloy components. All the samples were manufactured with 90-µm-layer thickness increasing productivity by approximately 65%. A design of experiments (DOE) method was used to analyze the effect of process parameters on the densification percentage. The produced samples were observed with a non-destructive process, the X-ray computed tomography system, to detect the presence of defects and pores. It has been found that a combination of parameters can induce porosities with a morphology such that after stress relieving the density increases rather than decreases as has been widely discussed in the literature. The mechanical properties are comparable with the literature values for conventional technologies. Good values of as-built surface roughness were also achieved despite the layer thickness.