Electrostatic powder attraction for the development of a novel recoating system for metal powder bed-based additive manufacturing

The field of electrostatics and electrophotography offers great potential for applying powder layers for powder bed-based additive manufacturing processes, such as powder bed fusion of metals using a laser beam (PBF-LB/M). The authors introduce a highly flexible powder layer forming process using the electrophotographic principle. The focus is on full-area powder attraction by electrostatic mass transport of a typical gas atomized PBF-LB/M steel alloy (20MnCr5). A simulation model was created to predict the formation of the electric field. This model was used to determine parameter preselection for experimental validation. After successful full-area powder attraction, a selective powder attraction approach was investigated.