Effect of Laser Parameters on Sintered Powder Morphology

Selective laser sintering is a kind of rapid prototyping process whereby a three-dimensional part is built layerwise by laser scanning a powder. This process is highly influenced by powder and laser parameters such as laser power, scan rate, spot size and layer thickness. Therefore a study on fabricating a line with Fe-Ni-Cr powder on AISI H13 tool steel has been performed by selective laser sintering. In this study, fabrication was performed by experimental facilities consisting of a 200W fiber laser which can be focused to 0.08 mm and atmospheric chamber which can control atmospheric pressure with argon. The line was fabricated with various laser power, scan rate and layer thickness. Line width and surface quality were investigated. With power increase or layer thickness decrease, line width was decreased and line surface quality was improved with scan rate optimization.