Study on Reduction of Residual Stress Induced during Rapid Tooling Process: Influence of Heating Conditions on Residual Stress

This paper deals with the reduction of residual stress induced during the selective laser melting with a mixture of ferrous based metal powder. To evaluate the residual stresses induced during layered manufacturing processes, a strain gauge is attached on the bottom face of the base plate. The residual stress within the consolidated structure is calculated from the amount of strain change measured by the strain gauge when the consolidated structure is cut with an end mill. The influences of base plate thickness and consolidated structure height on the residual stresses are investigated. In addition, the effect of pre-heating and post heating by a laser beam irradiation are evaluated. The results showed that the deformation of the base plate increased with the increase of the consolidated layer and the decrease of base plate thickness, and the deformation was flattened when the consolidated structure was completely removed with the end mill. The deformation was related to the induced residual stresses. The residual stress distribution within the consolidated structure in the z direction was extremely large at the top layer of the structure and the boundary between the base plate and consolidated structure. The residual stress at the first layer of the structure decreased when the base plate was heated before consolidating the deposited powder. The residual stresses decreased when each of the consolidated layers was repeatedly heated by the laser beam irradiation.