Simulated Optimum Temperature Distribution of Selective Laser Melting Process Using Design of Experiments

Temperature distribution while fabricating parts plays a vital role both in physical properties and mechanical properties. Model simulation using Analysis packages is a new trend in research to minimize time and experimental cost. In this paper a powerful statistical tool called Design of Experiments is used to simulate the Selective Laser Melting Process to find the dependency of various parameters like Laser Power, Scan Velocity, scan interval for optimum temperature distribution. 90W-7Ni-3Fe powder thermo-physical properties are used for simulation using ANSYS. Two levels for each process parameters were selected based on the literature and 2^4-1 fractional factorial design is used to investigate the most significant parameters of the process for maximum temperature distribution.

Response relation equation with the process parameters shows that most significant parameter for the maximum temperature distribution is laser power and scan velocity. Estimated optimum temperature is expressed in terms of significant parameters.