Maraging steel powder alteration caused by laser powder bed fusion printing process
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 showed that powder particles were not uniformly distributed over the powder bed, coarsening toward the collecting bin. Nevertheless, the gas filtration system that transports spatters and fumes had no noticeable effect on the powder bed particle-size distribution (PSD). Analyses of the powder spread over the build plate revealed that the PSD shifted toward larger particles with a considerable drop in the percentage of fine particles as the spacing between printed parts was decreased. Printing lattice structures had a substantial impact on the PSD of the powder bed. 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-clap,” elongated particles, broken particles, shattered, and deformed particles. Taken together, the study showed that the PSD of the powder became coarser and the particle morphology was altered as the number of reuses increased.
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