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Effect of laser remelting on surface roughness and microstructure of AlSi10Mg selective laser melting manufactured parts

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Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM) allows to obtain components by a careful selection of process parameters. This technology is becoming more and more attractive because it is capable of producing dense and complex metallic parts. Considering that one of the main drawbacks of this technology is the high surface roughness, this research aims at reducing it by means of skin laser remelting performed during the fabrication process. Since the remelting strategy affects only the external skin, the building time is slightly affected by this additional operation and the infill part properties remain unchanged. In this work, the effect of process parameters on the surface morphology and alloy microstructure has been analyzed. The obtained results highlighted that the remelting process allows to improve the surface morphology but it affects the subsurface defect formation. The obtainable surface roughness for different surface slopes was modelled as a function of the process parameters.

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Code availability

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Abbreviations

P :

Laser power

L :

Layer thickness

V :

Scan speed

h d :

Hatch distance

VED:

Volumetric energy density

LED:

Linear energy density

C o :

Contour offset

Ra:

Average roughness

λ c :

Cut-off

λ s :

Short wavelength cut-off

RDq:

Root mean square slope

Rku:

Kurtosis

Rz:

Average maximum height of the profile

DF:

Degrees of freedom

Adj SS:

Adjusted sum of squares

Adj MS:

Adjusted mean squares

F-value:

Fisher test statistics

P value:

Probability value

S :

Standard deviation

R-sq:

R-squared determination coefficient

R-sq(adj):

Adjusted R-squared determination coefficient

R-sq(pred):

Predicted R-squared determination coefficient

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sapienza Università di Roma, DIMA, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Alberto Boschetto & Luana Bottini

  2. Sapienza Università di Roma, DICMA, via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Daniela Pilone

Authors
  1. Alberto Boschetto
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  2. Luana Bottini
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  3. Daniela Pilone
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Contributions

Prof. Alberto Boschetto took part in the experimentation, roughness study, statistical analysis, and models development. Dr. Luana Bottini took part in the experimentation activities definition and realization, to the roughness measurements and data analysis. Prof. Daniela Pilone carried out metallurgical investigations on the studied specimens by means of optical microscope and SEM/EDS. All the authors participated in the drafting and revising of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Luana Bottini.

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Boschetto, A., Bottini, L. & Pilone, D. Effect of laser remelting on surface roughness and microstructure of AlSi10Mg selective laser melting manufactured parts. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 113, 2739–2759 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-06775-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-06775-3

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