Page 124 - MSAM-2-3

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Maraging steel powder alteration caused by

laser powder bed fusion printing process

Othmane Rayan *, Jean Brousseau , Claude Belzile , and Abderrazak El Ouafi 1
1
2
1
1 Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, Université du Québec à
Rimouski, Rimouski, Quebec, Canada
2 Institut des Sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski,
Quebec, Canada
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: 3D Printing for Structural and Functional Integration)

Abstract
Metallic additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have recently drawn a lot
of interest, notably in the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical fields, as they
allow a great degree of design flexibility, perform well mechanically, and reduce
material waste. As long as the unfused powder is sieved and recycled for the next
print, AM is a green and clean process. However, the recycled powder is prone to
several modifications during the course of printing that may affect the mechanical
properties of finished components. The study examines the phenomenon of powder
degradation caused by laser powder bed fusion printing process and the reuse of
the powder. Maraging steel was chosen because there are very few studies on the
alteration of this type of powder. The effects of part location, distance between
parts and lattice structure on powder characteristics were investigated. Results
*Corresponding author: showed that powder particles were not uniformly distributed over the powder
Othmane Rayan
(othmane.rayan@uqar.ca) bed, coarsening toward the collecting bin. Nevertheless, the gas filtration system
that transports spatters and fumes had no noticeable effect on the powder bed
Citation: Rayan O, Brousseau J,
Belzile C, et al., 2023, Maraging particle-size distribution (PSD). Analyses of the powder spread over the build plate
steel powder alteration caused revealed that the PSD shifted toward larger particles with a considerable drop in the
by laser powder bed fusion percentage of fine particles as the spacing between printed parts was decreased.
printing process. Mater Sci Addi Printing lattice structures had a substantial impact on the PSD of the powder bed.
Manuf, 2(3): 1781.
https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.1781 The size of the particles increased remarkably as the lattice cell became tighter,
while the powder morphology showed a huge amount of spatters, aggregates, “clip-
Received: September 8, 2023
clap,” elongated particles, broken particles, shattered, and deformed particles. Taken
Accepted: September 23, 2023 together, the study showed that the PSD of the powder became coarser and the
Published Online: September 29, particle morphology was altered as the number of reuses increased.
2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Laser-powder-bed fusion process; Powder reuse;
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the Powder morphology; Particle-size distribution; Lattice parts
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel technique used to create three-dimensional
Publishing remains neutral with (3D) products from virtual 3D models by layering the component until the part is
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional complete. The earliest AM concept was a topographical map produced at the end of
affiliations. the 19 -century . At present, AM knowledge and technologies are widely developed
th
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Volume 2 Issue 3 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.1781