Transferability of Process Parameters in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Processes for an Energy and Cost Efficient Manufacturing

Oliver Pannitz and Jan T. Sehrt
Additional contact information
Oliver Pannitz: Hybrid Additive Manufacturing, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
Jan T. Sehrt: Hybrid Additive Manufacturing, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: In the past decade, the sales of metal additive manufacturing systems have increased intensely. In particular, PBF-LB/M systems (powder bed fusion of metals using a laser-based system) represent a technology of great industrial interest, in which metallic powders are molten and solidified layer upon layer by a focused laser beam. This leads to a simultaneous increase in demand for metallic powder materials. Due to adjusted process parameters of PBF-LB/M systems, the powder is usually procured by the system’s manufacturer. The requirement and freedom to process different feedstocks in a reproducible quality and the economic and ecological factors involved are reasons to have a closer look at the differences between the quality of the provided metallic powders. Besides, different feedstock materials require different energy inputs, allowing a sustainable process control to be established. In this work, powder quality of stainless steel 1.4404 and the effects during the processing of metallic powders that are nominally the same were analyzed and the influence on the build process followed by the final part quality was investigated. Thus, a correlation between morphology, particle size distribution, absorptivity, flowability, and densification depending on process parameters was demonstrated. Optimized exposure parameters to ensure a more sustainable and energy and cost-efficient manufacturing process were determined.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; PBF-LB/M; powder characterization; sustainable process parameters; stainless steel (1.4404; 316L); energy and cost-efficient manufacturing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1565/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1565/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1565-:d:322679

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().