Main Defects Observed in Titanium GRADE II and 316L Stainless Steel Elements Obtained by Selective Laser Melting

Selective Laser Melting SLM is one of the most popular three dimensional printing methods, which can be used for manufactured real elements (with high geometrical complexity) in many application, such as medicine, automotive or aerospace industries. The SLM final parts are characterized by high mechanical properties and satisfactory physicochemical properties. However, the properties of parts depend of process parameters optimization. In this paper, effects of processing parameters, such as laser power P, scanning speed SP, layer thickness t or point distance PD on defect formation and relative densities of manufactured elements are explored. For the purpose the stainless steel 316L and pure titanium Grade II are used. The process optimization were carried out according to the formula of energy density, which is delivered to the powder material. The stainless steel samples were divided into 12 groups, depends of the energy density. The titanium parts were printed at the same value of energy, and the process parameters are changed. The microscope observation and relative density measurements were carried out. Based on the obtained results, it can be confuted that the SLM parameters have a significant effect on the samples properties and the mechanism formed defect in both material are similar.