Optimization of Laser‐Powder Bed Fusion Processed Fe–4.5Si Alloy via Response Surface Methodology

Fe–Si alloy‐based additive manufacturing (AM) has become a popular manufacturing process of complex‐shaped parts for electric mobility vehicles. However, an optimization strategy has yet to be established owing to the various processing parameters of the AM process. Because the energy density‐based approach is unable to consider external factors (e.g., irregularly shaped powders and instrumental effects), the present study applies the response surface methodology (RSM) to estimate the properties of AM‐processed Fe–Si alloy samples. Quadratic polynomial models of the density and hardness based on the RSM successfully estimated the properties of as‐built Fe–4.5Si alloy samples with a deviation of 5% from the experimental results. Based on the verified mathematical models, the optimal conditions to manufacture a Fe–4.5Si sample with the highest density and hardness combination are 125.38 W and 800 mm s −1 . The results indicate that RSM is an effective approach for optimizing the properties of AM‐processed parts with a limited amount of experimental data.