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Experimental analysis of laser post-processing of additive manufactured

metallic parts

Conference Paper · September 2018

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Juliana dos Santos Solheid W. Pfleging

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
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 Experimental analysis of laser post-processing of additive
manufactured metallic parts
Juliana dos Santos Solheid1, Hans Jürgen Seifert1, Wilhelm Pfleging1,2
1
Institute for Applied Materials (IAM-AWP), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 3640, 76021
Karlsruhe, Germany
2
Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility, H.-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344 Egg.-Leopoldshafen, Germany

Corresponding author:
Email address: juliana.solheid@kit.edu

Abstract
This work focuses on laser-assisted surface finishing and modification of metallic parts produced by means of the
selective laser melting (SLM) process. The combination of additive manufacturing (AM) and subsequent laser
polishing is a technical approach with high flexibility in comparison to conventional processes. AM parts often
present the need of post-processing due to surfaces with roughness higher than the admissible for most
applications. The laser polishing process is based on ablation and melting of a small amount of surface material,
through laser energy absorption. The affected surface material is redistributed in order to create a homogenous
layer with reduced roughness and probably new functionalities. Besides the flexibility, laser polishing provides
high processing speed and capability for localized surface treatment. In the presented study, post-processing is
realized by different types of lasers in terms of pulse duration, continuous wave (cw), short (ns) and ultrafast (ps,
fs) pulses. Ultrafast laser radiation induces almost no heat to the surrounding material during ablation, while
nanosecond and especially continuous wave lasers are used to generate a molten film at the surface, resulting in
modified material properties of the re-solidified layer in comparison to the bulk material. With different laser
operating modes, one achieves different surface qualities (roughness) and functionalities. Besides the pulse
duration, the influences of the scan speed, repetition rate and average laser power are investigated. The resulting
characteristics of AM parts irradiated by laser sources with these different technical features are examined and a
suitable combination of laser processing sequences is discussed. The material under analysis is the 18Ni Maraging
steel (300 grade). The samples present simple prismatic geometry. The different surfaces resulting from the AM
process present varying roughness Ra in the range of 2 to 6 µm due to particularities of the process, such as powder
attached to the surface or porosity. For that reason, both the side and top surfaces of the samples are analysed. To
evaluate the impact of laser processing on the material, the surface roughness and microstructure are presented
and correlated to the process parameters.

Keywords: selective laser melting, surface modification, laser polishing

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