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Title: On the quality of unsupported overhangs produced by laser powder bed fusion

Authors: Gabriele Piscopo; Alessandro Salmi; Eleonora Atzeni

Addresses: Politecnico di Torino, Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy ' Politecnico di Torino, Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy ' Politecnico di Torino, Department of Management and Production Engineering (DIGEP), Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129, Torino, Italy

Abstract: One of the main design constraints for additive manufacturing is the definition of downward-facing surfaces, which can lead to problems, like part failing or warping, during construction and poor surface quality. In this paper, a specific index has been defined to represent the surface quality of the downward-facing surfaces induced by the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. In order to validate the quality index, a design of experiment (DoE) that considers geometric parameters of the overhangs has been defined and carried out, and the quality of resulting surfaces has been evaluated using an optical scanning system. The statistical analysis (ANOVA) has allowed identifying the relationships between significant geometrical parameters and the quality index here proposed. [Submitted 5 April 2018; Accepted 27 August 2018]

Keywords: additive manufacturing; selective laser melting; SLM; powder bed fusion; PBF; unsupported overhangs; surface quality; process parameters; roughness; optical scanning system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2019.100012

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2019 Vol.14 No.2, pp.198 - 216

Received: 05 Apr 2018
Accepted: 27 Aug 2018
Published online: 03 Jun 2019 *