The Effect of Layer Thickness at Selective Laser Melting

Selective laser melting technology involves various parameters which may influence properties of the resulting part. This study presents the correlation between powder layer thickness and relative density, microstructure and mechanical properties of nickel-based superalloy produced by selective laser melting. It is shown that the microstructure of the bulk material consists of columnar dendritic cells. The size of these cells depends on the layer thickness used during SLM. Tensile strength and elongation at break also depend on the powder layer thickness during SLM. Samples build with 30 μm layer thickness demonstrate higher strength and lower elongation at break than those build with 50 μm layer thickness. It is also established that the horizontally build samples show higher strength properties and lower plasticity compared to the vertically build samples.