Effect of Spatter Behavior on Mechanical Properties and Surface Roughness of Printed Parts during PBF-LM of 316L

Abstract

The spatter generated by the interaction between laser and powder during Powder Bed Fusion-Laser Melting (PBF-LM) can significantly affect the quality of printed parts. A high-speed camera is used to observe the dynamic process of spatter’s behavior under different layer thickness and laser powers during the printing process, and to analyze the printed samples’ surface roughness, microstructure, and mechanical properties. In terms of spatter image processing, employing an optical flow approach to track and quantify the number of spatters efficiently eliminates statistical redundancy and improves statistical correctness. It is found that under the same laser power, the number of spatters produced by the laser scan direction with the gas flow (LSD-W) is more than that by the laser scan direction against the gas flow (LSD-A), and the number of spatters produced increases with the increase of laser power. Analyzing the mechanical properties and surface roughness of the printed samples under different process parameters quantitatively reveals that differences in the spatter amount generated under different process parameters in the PBF-LM process is not the determining factor affecting the difference in tensile strength of printed parts. During LSD-W, the number of spatters generated at laser power of 170 W and layer thickness of 0.03 mm is 87, and the tensile strength of the printed sample is 618 MPa. During LSD-W, the number of spatters generated at laser power of 320 W and layer thickness of 0.05 mm is 211, and the tensile strength of the printed sample is 680 MPa. Instead, spatter generation has a more direct impact on the surface roughness of printed parts. The layer thickness is 0.03 mm, the laser power is 170 W, and (Ra = 2.372 μm) is the surface roughness of the sample. The layer thickness is 0.05 mm, the laser power is 320 W, and (Ra = 8.163 μm) is the surface roughness of the sample.