Parametric analysis of the selective laser melting process

Selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) technology is used for manufacturing net-shaped objects from commercial Inox 904L powder with < 20 mu m particle size. Experiments were carried out on PHENIX-PM100 machine equipped with a 50 W cw fiber laser. Powder is layered by a 14 roller over the surface of a 100 mm-diameter build cylinder. Optimal parameters of layer thickness and power input per unit speed for SLM were determined. It was shown that the greater the value of P/V ratio is, the larger is the remelted line (called as vector). Influence of the shifting of consecutive single vectors on the process of forming the first layer was studied. Different strategies for forming objects with less than 1 mm-sized inner structures were tested, as, for example, forming a 20 mm x 20 mm x 5 mm box with 140 mu m-thick inner compartment walls. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.