Modeling and Mapping of Microstructure of Powder Bed Laser Fusion Additive Manufacturing Hybrid Milling of Maraging Steel

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, (AM), has revolutionized traditional manufacturing methods by allowing for more intricate and customized part manufacturing. Industries including aerospace and advanced tooling utilize metal AM to design and manufacture complex components with high quality and performance. This study focuses on powder bed laser fusion (PBLF) hybrid milling (PBLFM), which is an additive hybrid subtractive manufacturing approach (AHSM). This relatively new AM manufacturing approach has gaps in understanding the influence of the process parameters on the manufactured parts’ mechanical and physical properties. Hence, in this study, the Taguchi L9 Orthogonal array was used to design an experiment to evaluate the influence of the PBLFM major process parameters, (laser power, print speed hatch space, and layer thickness) on the resulting microstructure, energy density, and mechanical properties of Maraging steel. It was found that print speed and layer thickness are the top contributors to mechanical properties and microstructure variance. The resulting process map from this project can be used to guide engineers to design the optimal PBLFM parameters for any given application.