Research on the fabricating quality optimization of the overhanging surface in SLM process

Overhanging surface is inherent geometric restraint during selective laser melting (SLM), which is suitable for various complex parts fabrication. In order to improve the fabricating quality of overhanging surface, a series of experiments were designed to investigate the effects of inclined angle, scanning speed, laser power, accumulated residual stress, and scanning vector length on overhanging surface fabrication. Analysis found that overhanging surface would warp easier when the inclined angle and the scanning speed became smaller and the warping trend will be larger as the laser power became larger. The relationships of laser power, scanning speed, and the critical inclined angle were mutual restraint, that is, larger inclined angle will be designed when the laser power becomes larger and scanning speed gets smaller, or vice versa: the selection of the fabricating parameters will be determined by established inclined angle of the overhanging surface. More serious warp would happen as the processing layers increased as a result of residual stress accumulation, and it was found that longer scanning vector were more helpful to stress accumulation, leading to more serious warp than shorter vector. At last, two effective methods were adopted to optimize overhanging surface fabrication, including adjusting part orientation to improve the inclined angle at the key position, and controlling regional parameters to reduce energy input. Above two ways were adopted to manufacture complex parts with typical overhanging surface, the results proved that adjusting part orientation and controlling regional parameters were effective ways to improve the fabricating quality of overhanging surface. In this study, the basis for building overhanging surface by SLM was provided from the view of process and design, and the preliminary solutions were proposed to manufacture complex metal parts with lower risk.