Abstract
Sintering and lamination characteristics of Fe-Cu atomized powder have been investigated to meet requirements on recycling of automobiles and manufacture of lightweight structure. The greentape laser sintering method using Nd:YAG pulse laser and powder tape called "greentape" is employed for the fabrication of Fe-Cu porous structure. Extensively investigated is influence of laser parameters, such as voltage, pulse width and average power upon the state of liquid sintering or both surface texture and tensile strength of the sintered specimens. A water-atomized Fe-5mass%Cu powder (3-8μm in diameter) is superior to the gas-atomized Fe-2mass%Cu one (5-38μm) in monolayer strength, but being difficult to laminate due to the existence of massive pores. It is successful to laminate 16 layers of gas-atomized greentape (190μm in thickness each) at a voltage of 198V, a pulse width of 2.0ms and an average power of 13W. Porous structure can be controlled by changing these laser parameters, whereas it is necessary to resolve distortion of the sintered part by means of a segmented laser irradiation.
