Roughness and Near-Surface Porosity of Unsupported Overhangs Produced by High-Speed Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a promising technology that requires further work to improve productivity to be adopted more widely. One possible approach is to increase the laser power and scan speed. A customized high-speed and high-power LPBF system has been developed for this purpose. The current study investigated the surface roughness and near-surface porosity as a result of unsupported overhangs at varying inclination angles and orientations during the manufacturing of Ti6Al4V parts with this custom high-speed and high-power LPBF system. It is known that surface roughness and porosity are among the main drawbacks for parts manufactured by LPBF, and that supports are required for overhang regions with low inclination angles relative to the powder bed, typically in commercial LPBF systems requiring supports for regions with inclination angles less than 45°. However, the appropriate inclination angles for this custom system with high power and speed requires investigation. In this article, a simple benchmark test artefact with different inclination angles was manufactured in different orientations on the build platform and characterized by X-ray tomography, touch probe roughness meter, optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The analysis of surface roughness and near-surface porosity at upskin and downskin regions was performed as a function of inclination angle. The results indicate that the high-speed LPBF process produces relatively high roughness in all cases, with different porosity distributions at upskin and downskin areas. Both roughness and porosity vary as a function of inclination angle. Significant warping was observed, depending on build orientation relative to laser scanning direction. These are the first reported results of the detailed surface roughness and porosity characterization of part quality from such a high-speed, high-power LPBF process.