Correlation of the High Power SLM Process with Resulting Material Properties for IN718

For SLM to become suitable for series production, its productivity and, thereby, process speed have to be increased. One possibility to achieve this is by increasing laser power and adapting the process parameters (beam diameter, laser power, scanning velocity, and more) accordingly (High Power SLM). This adaption of the process parameters, however, leads to a significant change in the cooling and solidification conditions in the melt pool: The microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties are significantly changed. For this reason, it is necessary to investigate the influence of the HP-SLM process on the resulting material properties. The results show the investigation of a process window with up to 2kW laser power for the nickel-based alloy IN718, which is a material frequently used for high temperature applications in the turbomachinery branch. Here, the extent to which different process parameters influence the achievable productivity is analysed. Afterwards, the microstructure (grain size and orientation) and the mechanical properties (tensile tests) are examined for selected process windows. In the end, a correlation between process parameters, microstructure, and mechanical properties is conducted.