Impacts of microsecond control in laser powder bed fusion processing

Lasers used in standard metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) machines are focused at the build plane with typical beam diameters less than 100 µm. This results in millions of individual laser beam scanning vectors when fabricating complex metal parts, and in most build scenarios, the laser turns on and off at the beginning and end of each vector, respectively. The standard configuration for LPBF machines includes a laser beam steering system with two mirrors attached to galvanometers, called the scanner. Most commercial lasers have response times for beam power control below 10 µs yet acceleration/deceleration times of commercial scanners are an order of magnitude slower (due to the dynamics of the mechanical system). A common strategy for allowing the scanner to "catch up" with the commanded location and speed is to employ "skywriting" with additional built-in time delays to allow for the scanner to maintain constant velocity while the laser is on. These delays along with skywriting are intended to increase resolution and reduce defects, although the actions and times are typically not accessible by the user. In fact, the millions of laser on/off events result in additional sources for defect generation to include lack of fusion voids, keyhole voids, surface roughness, and spatter. Ultimately, this results in differences in part performance within builds (build location) and between LPBF platforms. Recent work has identified methods to eliminate some forms of laser on/off defects by controlling the laser power ramp rate. To the authors knowledge, laser power ramping is not currently implemented on any commercial LPBF machine, and the use of laser power ramping has yet to be evaluated on realistic, complex parts. As a result, the current work implemented laser power ramping on a commercial LPBF machine using a complicated geometry with 1,309,338 laser on/off events (vectors) to analyze the holistic impact of fabricating real parts on defects, mechanical properties, and spatter. Ramping the laser power over 300µs eliminated the formation of back spatter, and a demonstration build of a complex qualification test artifact using IN718 reduced total spatter by nearly 5%. However, this laser power ramp change over 300µs (i.e., linearly varying laser power from 0 W to the desired power set point over 300µs) increased lack of fusion defects near part edges that reduced the tensile ductility from 17% to 12% without affecting tensile strength. The research highlighted the financial challenges imposed when scrutinizing microsecond level interactions, and as a result, a low-cost method to identify minimum ramp rates to prevent back spatter using a smart phone and an optical microscope was demonstrated. Microsecond control over the laser must be accompanied by microsecond control of the scanner and the impacts must be quantified holistically over a variety of response variables to broadly apply the developments to industry applications.1