Evaluating the thermal characteristics of laser powder bed fusion

This study investigates the dynamic temperature behaviour around a melt pool in metal-based powder bed fusion using a laser beam (PBF-LB/M) to clarify the influence of the associated morphological changes of the metal powder experimentally. Gas-atomized 18Ni (300-grade) maraging steel powders were processed by PBF-LB/M while high-speed photography with a two-colour radiometric thermal imaging system that was employed to correlate the temperature with melt pool behaviour. In addition, the cooling rate of the melt pool was measured directly using the dynamic temperature distribution. The temperature distribution of the melt pool was influenced by the morphological changes of the metal powder induced by physical and thermal interactions, and the melt pool exhibited an asymmetric temperature distribution in the direction parallel to the laser scan. The significant factors were droplet cohesion at low melt pool temperatures, remaining heat energy from previous laser beam irradiation, and the heat conduction inside the melt pool. The laser beam incident on the metal powder was primarily characterized by two modes: direct heating induced by laser beam irradiation and heat conduction through the single track, droplets, and substrate. In addition, the dynamic temperature behaviour provided a direct explanation for the cooling rate, the values of which ranged from 0.1 to 0.9 x 10(6) K/s owing to the self cooling induced by PBF-LB/M.