AFX360° | Fraunhofer IAPT | Higher Productivity in L-PBF of Ti6Al4V & AlSi10Mg with nLIGHT AFX-1000

Live presentation of Jan Johannsen (Fraunhofer IAPT) at Formnext 2022 in Frankfurt on November 16th 2022
An ongoing major challenge in AM is its productivity and cost structure. In L-PBF, the exposure time has been improved over the last decade, mainly by increasing hatch distances and layer thicknesses. This was rendered possible through increased maximum laser power of the typically used laser sources with Gaussian intensity distribution. However, due to its distinct central peak intensity, a Gaussian-shaped beam limits the maximum suitable laser power in L-PBF, due to overheating of the melt pool.
In this study, the overheating issue was addressed by utilizing alternative circular laser beam profiles. Thus, the effect of different laser beam profiles, provided by the nLIGHT AFX laser, on the productivity by the means of exposure time of Ti-6Al-4V and AlSi10Mg was experimentally evaluated.