Investigations Of Air Atomized And Coarser Gas-atomized AlSi12 Powders To Evaluate Cost Reduction Potentials For Additive Manufacturing Processes

The powder is a decisive factor for the final quality of an L-PBF part. Due to constant improvements, productivity continues to rise and more cost efficient processes can be realized. Thereby, the importance of material-related cost-savings increase and become more relevant regarding the overall manufacturing costs. In order to save costs, the processing of uncommon AlSi12 powder qualities was investigated. A broader particle size distribution (20-100 μm) and an irregular shaped powder (20-63 μm, air atomized) were compared with a standard powder (20-63 μm). All powders were characterised and the flowability was determined. In-process spreadability was monitored and determined on a test-rig. The component quality was analysed using density cubes and tensile specimens built up on an EOS M290. To increase the efficiency of the L-PBF process, coarser layer thicknesses were achieved with the coarser powder. For a final evaluation, the cost saving potentials for all powders variants were evaluated.