On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a well-established additive manufacturing process for producing high-quality metal components with unparallelled design freedom. However, LPBF also has its limitations, including a limited materials palette, low productivity and high costs, mainly due to the expensi...

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Main Authors: Sebastian Meyers, Kopila Gurung, Yannis Kinds, Brecht Van Hooreweder
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Additive Manufacturing Letters
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000380
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author Sebastian Meyers
Kopila Gurung
Yannis Kinds
Brecht Van Hooreweder
author_facet Sebastian Meyers
Kopila Gurung
Yannis Kinds
Brecht Van Hooreweder
author_sort Sebastian Meyers
collection DOAJ
description Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a well-established additive manufacturing process for producing high-quality metal components with unparallelled design freedom. However, LPBF also has its limitations, including a limited materials palette, low productivity and high costs, mainly due to the expensive feedstock powders. These powders must meet highly stringent requirements regarding particle size (15–45μm), particle size distribution (mono-modal) and morphology (spherical), which is achievable only through expensive gas- and plasma-atomised powders. This paper investigates slurry-LPBF as an alternative to conventional dry powder LPBF. The use of slurry removes some of the stringent powder requirements by allowing deposition of smaller particles with a variety of particle morphologies. Slurry-LPBF can therefore increase the useful yield of the atomisation process and expand the materials palette for LPBF, by enabling the use of powders for which atomised variants are not commercially available. This study used 316L stainless steel powder with an average particle size <18μm. An existing slurry-LPBF machine was re-designed and re-built, allowing successful slurry processing. Two optimal parameter sets were obtained, resulting in component density of 99.4%. Tensile testing revealed an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 622 ± 2 MPa and an elongation at break of 66 ± 2%. These results are consistent, and fall within the range of reported values in literature for dry-powder LPBF, with the UTS being on the lower side of the range, whilst elongation at break being on the higher side.
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spelling doaj-art-ee82608b2ac741de94cc85d2b802b9232025-08-20T02:34:19ZengElsevierAdditive Manufacturing Letters2772-36902024-12-011110023010.1016/j.addlet.2024.100230On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steelSebastian Meyers0Kopila Gurung1Yannis Kinds2Brecht Van Hooreweder3KU Leuven University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300, 3001 Heverlee, BelgiumKU Leuven University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300, 3001 Heverlee, BelgiumKU Leuven University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300, 3001 Heverlee, BelgiumCorresponding author.; KU Leuven University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300, 3001 Heverlee, BelgiumLaser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a well-established additive manufacturing process for producing high-quality metal components with unparallelled design freedom. However, LPBF also has its limitations, including a limited materials palette, low productivity and high costs, mainly due to the expensive feedstock powders. These powders must meet highly stringent requirements regarding particle size (15–45μm), particle size distribution (mono-modal) and morphology (spherical), which is achievable only through expensive gas- and plasma-atomised powders. This paper investigates slurry-LPBF as an alternative to conventional dry powder LPBF. The use of slurry removes some of the stringent powder requirements by allowing deposition of smaller particles with a variety of particle morphologies. Slurry-LPBF can therefore increase the useful yield of the atomisation process and expand the materials palette for LPBF, by enabling the use of powders for which atomised variants are not commercially available. This study used 316L stainless steel powder with an average particle size <18μm. An existing slurry-LPBF machine was re-designed and re-built, allowing successful slurry processing. Two optimal parameter sets were obtained, resulting in component density of 99.4%. Tensile testing revealed an ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 622 ± 2 MPa and an elongation at break of 66 ± 2%. These results are consistent, and fall within the range of reported values in literature for dry-powder LPBF, with the UTS being on the lower side of the range, whilst elongation at break being on the higher side.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000380Laser powder bed fusion316L stainless steelColloidal processingMetal slurry
spellingShingle Sebastian Meyers
Kopila Gurung
Yannis Kinds
Brecht Van Hooreweder
On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
Additive Manufacturing Letters
Laser powder bed fusion
316L stainless steel
Colloidal processing
Metal slurry
title On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
title_full On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
title_fullStr On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
title_full_unstemmed On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
title_short On the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316L stainless steel
title_sort on the use of slurry as an alternative to dry powder for laser powder bed fusion of 316l stainless steel
topic Laser powder bed fusion
316L stainless steel
Colloidal processing
Metal slurry
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772369024000380
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