Description

A selective laser melting method (SLM), which is an additive manufacturing technology, is becoming increasingly popular due to its ability to form three-dimensional (3D) shapes without a mold or cutting. SLM can fabricate complicated shapes by building an object layer by layer form a powder. Our previous study suggested that sputtering generation depend on the wettability of molten metal on the SLM baseplate. Baseplate preheating improved the wettability and promoted the desorption of volatiles, which suppressed sputtering generation and produced a plate surface with small surface roughness. A titanium alloy (Ti64) is clinical applied as an implant material due to its biocompatibility as well as its high corrosion and mechanical resistance. Although this material has α + β crystal orientations, the β phase mainly appears in the SLM process since Ti64 metals above 1600-degree C by laser irradiation and then solidifies. However, for our SLM process, there was a problem that distribution of crystal grain size was caused inhomogeneous by excessive input since laser scanning speed was low. In order to control the crystal orientation and crystal grain size, the modulated pulse of laser was employed to control the heat input energy of laser in the SLM process in this study. A single mode fiber laser was employed. Ti64 powder was set on a substrate and placed in vacuum chamber. Two-axis galvanic mirrors and an F-theta lens were used to focus on the powder surface. The Gaussian laser beam had a diameter of 100 µm at the 1/e2 intensity point. A linear raster scan pattern was employed with a scan vector length of 10 mm. A 3D fabricated sample (10×10×0.1mm) from the results the fabricated sample with the modulated pulse was higher and then grain size was became small for pulse duration. After fabrication, the sample was cut to measure the Vickers hardness was compared with that of the commercial Ti and Ti64, the CW laser fabricated sample had a value close to that of pure-Ti, and the fabricated sample using modulated pulses for laser had value close to Ti64. It was considered that a phase was formed by using CW laser and α + β phase was formed by using modulated pulsed for laser, suggesting the possibility of controlling the material structure by controlling the heat input of one layer was formed by these processes.

Contributing Authors

  • Yuta Mizuguchi
    Osaka University
  • Yuji Sato
    Osaka University
  • Masahiro Tsukamoto
    Osaka University
Yuta Mizuguchi
Osaka University
Track: Laser Additive Manufacturing
Session: Poster
Date/Time:
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Keywords

  • Controlling The Heat Input
  • Controlling The Material Structure
  • Modulated Pulse
  • Slm