Improving the quality of up-facing inclined surfaces in laser powder bed fusion of metals using a dual laser setup
Jitka Metelková, Daniel Ordnung, Yannis Kinds, Ann Witvrouw, Brecht Van Hooreweder
Abstract
Surface quality of parts produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is often insufficient for their final application. Up-facing inclined surfaces are among the major challenges, due to the combination of elevated edges (edge effect) and the staircase effect. This work presents a novel methodology to enhance the quality of inclined surfaces using a dual laser PBF setup. In the first step called “selective powder removal”, powder is blown away from undesired areas using shock waves produced by a nanosecond pulsed wave laser. Consequently, the newly exposed inclined surfaces can be remelted with a continuous wave laser, reducing significantly the surface texture.