Page 30 - MSAM-3-3

Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing Defects in additively fabricated Al6061

A B C

D E F

Figure 6. Response surface plots for (A-C) porosity and (D-F) crack density
Abbreviations: V: Velocity; P: Power; h: Hatch distance

A B

Figure 7. Pareto fronts obtained using the (A) multi-objective genetic algorithm and (B) Pareto search algorithm

This exploratory study aimed to establish a practical is recommended that test cubes should be randomly
technique for designing experiments and provide distributed on the build platform with various layouts to
recommendations for testing printability in aluminum avoid any interaction during the L-PBF process and biases
Al6061 alloy. Several factors influence the selection of related to defect and crack formation due to thermal
process parameters, such as powder material supplier, gradients. In this study, the effects of selecting pre-defined
powder particle size distribution, L-PBF machine printing parameters and layout design for the test cubes on the
chamber size and platform dimensions, ambient gas build platform are not considered to maintain minimal
environment, powder spreading mechanism, and layout experiment complexity. Furthermore, measuring and
design to locate the test cubes on the platform. These quantifying defects in test cubes are kept practical to
are pre-defined parameters and cannot be varied easily, facilitate adoption by industrial users for assessing porosity
but they affect the material’s printability. Therefore, it and cracks in AM components.

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2024) 12 doi: 10.36922/msam.3652