2018 Volume 65 Issue 7 Pages 431-435
In recent years, the use of additive manufacturing (AM) technology in the fields of aviation, medical devices, and so forth has been investigated. Electron beams and lasers are used for metal AM as heat sources. Metal powder can be re-used for both processes, although the particle size of the powder differs for each process. However, there is concern over the change in the characteristics of the re-used powder. The re-used powder particle distribution may vary from the original distribution. In this study, we investigated the effects of different particle sizes on pure titanium fabricated by AM using a laser beam as the heat source. Correlations of the laser strategy and quality characteristics of products fabricated using four types of powder particle size distribution were experimentally verified.
