The Influence of Structural Design on the Dimensional Accuracy of CuCrZr Alloy Produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

With the upgrade of additive manufacturing (AM) equipment, pure copper and various Cu-based alloys with almost full density have been successfully produced, maintaining their excellent thermal and electrical conductivity and good mechanical properties at high temperatures as well. In this paper, a model with a series of inclined surface structures was designed and fabricated to investigate the structural design on the formability of CuCrZr alloy produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The typical structure dimensions of the as-built samples were measured and compared with their corresponding dimensions and the inclined angle (alpha) and the relative angle (gamma) between the inclined surface and recoating directions. The results demonstrate that the inclined structures with alpha < 50 degrees were fabricated either with varying buckling deformation and powder adhesion or in failure for severe distortion. The differences (L-d) between the typical structure dimensions and their models increase with the decreasing of alpha. It has been observed that L-d reaches 1 mm when alpha is 20 degrees and drastically reduces to around 200 mu m when alpha is above 50 degrees. When alpha < 50 degrees, L-d is generally increasing with a rising gamma value from 0 degrees to 180 degrees, significantly affecting the dimensional accuracy.