Page 19 - MSAM-3-3

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
An experimental process parameter study

on the identification of defects in additively
fabricated Al6061 with laser powder bed fusion

Faik Derya Ince 1 , Sivaji Karna 2 , Tianyu Zhang 2 , Andrew J. Gross 2 ,
Timothy Krentz 3 , Dale Hitchcock 3 , Lang Yuan * , and Tuğrul Özel *
2
1
1 Manufacturing and Automation Research Laboratory, Department of Industrial and Systems
Engineering, School of Engineering, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Piscataway, New Jersey,
United States of America
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing,
University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, United States of America
3 Tritium Technology Division, Savannah River National Lab, Aiken, South Carolina, United States of
America

Abstract

Additively fabricated metal parts using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) possess
sophisticated morphology due to the recurrent use of laser-induced metal powder
melting and solidification. The surface and 3D morphology of these parts often
include defects in the form of protrusions, depressions, pores, voids, keyholes, or
cracks that are known to be influenced by laser scanning paths and layer-to-layer
*Corresponding authors:
Lang Yuan processing. Such inconsistent part quality hampers the extensive adoption of L-PBF.
(langyuan@cec.sc.edu) Pores and cracks are detrimental to the fatigue life of the parts and components.
Tuğrul Özel Quantifying and controlling part defects and optimizing processing and scanning
(ozel@rutgers.edu) strategy parameters adaptively in real-time through in situ monitoring systems are
Citation: Ince FD, Karna S, highly desired. This study investigates the optimization of experimental process
Zhang T, et al. An experimental parameters (power, scan velocity, and hatch spacing) and their effects on the cracking
process parameter study on the
identification of defects in additively and porosity of Al6061 alloy using machine learning techniques. Multi-objective
fabricated Al6061 with laser powder optimization is formulated and conducted to determine the L-PBF parameters that
bed fusion. Mater Sci Add Manuf. minimize both porosity and crack densities.
2024;3(3):3652.
doi: 10.36922/msam.3652
Received: May 13, 2024 Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Laser powder bed fusion; Aluminum alloy 6061;
Accepted: July 24, 2024 Cracks; Porosity; Optimization
Published Online: August 30, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution The largest market share of metal additive manufacturing (AM) systems belongs to
License, permitting distribution, powder bed fusion (PBF) processes. PBF processes utilize thermal energy generated
1
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is by laser or electron-energy beams to scan selective areas of a powder bed, fusing the
properly cited. powder material and fabricating the desired 3D geometry part layer-by-layer. Advances
Publisher’s Note: AccScience in PBF techniques, such as laser PBF (L-PBF) and electron beam PBF (EB-PBF) enable
Publishing remains neutral with unimaginable design choices but require careful selection of PBF process parameters.
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional It was reported that the total number of process parameters may include more than 50
affiliations. decision variables. Furthermore, the design complexity and desired flexibility for the
2,3

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/msam.3652