Evren Yasa

Assessing and comparing influencing factors of residual stresses in Selective Laser Melting using a novel analysis method

During selective laser melting, the irradiated material experiences large temperature fluctuations in a short time which causes unwanted thermal stresses. In order to assess thermal stresses in a simple and fast way, a new pragmatic method is developed, namely the bridge curvature method. The bridge curvature method is used to assess and qualitatively compare the influence of different laser scan patterns, laser parameter settings and more fundamental process changes on residual stresses. The results from the experiments, as well as the findings from literature, lead to two general conclusions: changes that reduce the high temperature gradient, like using short scan vectors and preheating of the base plate, reduce the thermal stresses. And, thermal stresses in a particular direction can be reduced by optimal choice of the orientation of scan vectors. The experiments indicate the reliability of the bridge curvature method. Statistical analysis is used to check the repeatability of the method and to quantify the uncertainties during measurement.

The investigation of the influence of laser re‐melting on density, surface quality and microstructure of selective laser melting parts

Purpose – Selective laser melting (SLM) is a powder metallurgical (PM) additive manufacturing process whereby a three‐dimensional part is built in a layer‐wise manner. During the process, a high intensity laser beam selectively scans a powder bed according to the computer‐aided design data of the part to be produced and the powder metal particles are completely molten. The process is capable of producing near full density (∼98‐99 per cent relative density) and functional metallic parts with a high geometrical freedom. However, insufficient surface quality of produced parts is one of the important limitations of the process. The purpose of this study is to apply laser re‐melting using a continuous wave laser during SLM production of 316L stainless steel and Ti6Al4V parts to overcome this limitation.Design/methodology/approach – After each layer is fully molten, the same slice data are used to re‐expose the layer for laser re‐melting. In this manner, laser re‐melting does not only improve the surface qualit...

Experimental Analysis of Process and Laser Parameters in Laser Marking

Laser marking is a relatively new process to produce a mark on a product by the energy of a laser beam, mostly for the purpose of product identification and traceability. Compared to other techniques such as ink-marking, mechanical engraving and electro-chemical methods, laser marking has many advantages. In this study, laser marking is done with the laser of a standard RP/RM machine, i.e. a selective laser melting machine. This makes laser marking especially suited for marking parts produced by laser RP/RM techniques. On the other hand, the major difficulty in the process is the number of parameters and their complex relations which have not yet been investigated thoroughly. In the current study, the influences of scan speed, laser pump current (laser power) and pulse frequency of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser on the mark qualities were investigated by single-factor experiments on stainless steel parts. It was found that these parameters substantially affect mark width, depth and rim formation which is caused by the expelled molten material due to the recoil pressure during the marking process. In order to investigate the influence of cross interactions, a design of experiment methodology was used to evaluate the effects of the same parameters on the success of the laser marking process in terms of removed material and clarity of the mark (visibility, sharpness, etc.).© 2008 ASME