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The effect of laser welding modes on mechanical properties and microstructure of 304L stainless steel parts fabricated by laser-foil-printing additive manufacturing

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Abstract

The success of laser-foil-printing (LFP) additive manufacturing depends critically on the laser welding of sheet metals onto the substrate or the previous layer during the part fabrication process. The welding can be generally categorized into two modes: conduction mode and keyhole mode. In this study, 304L stainless steel parts fabricated by the LFP process using the two laser welding modes are compared. The porosity, microstructure, and tensile properties of the fabricated parts in these two modes are measured and compared in the laser scanning direction (X) and part building direction (Z). The parts fabricated in the conduction mode have a higher density than those fabricated in the keyhole mode. On the tensile properties, both yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) have insignificant differences statistically based on the ANOVA analysis between the tensile specimens fabricated with the two welding modes by the LFP process. However, the conduction-mode parts have higher elongation than the keyhole-mode parts in both the X and Z directions, and the difference is especially significant in the Z direction. By using the electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), it was found that the much higher ductility for the conduction-mode parts in the Z-axis direction is mainly due to the distinct grain boundary interface density in the Z-axis direction between the two welding modes.

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The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings will be made available on email request.

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Acknowledgments

The help and suggestions of Dr. Hai-Lung Tsai on this research are highly appreciated.

Funding

This research work was supported by the Department of Energy (grant number DE-FE0012272) and by the Intelligent Systems Center at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, 65409, USA

    Chia-Hung Hung, M. Hossein Sehhat & Ming C. Leu

  2. Materials Research Center, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, 65409, USA

    Wei-Ting Chen

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  1. Chia-Hung Hung
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Contributions

Chia-Hung Hung: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing—original draft; Wei-Ting Chen: methodology, validation, writing—review and editing; M. Hossein Sehhat: formal analysis, writing—review and editing; Ming C. Leu: supervision, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing

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Correspondence to Chia-Hung Hung.

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Hung, CH., Chen, WT., Sehhat, M.H. et al. The effect of laser welding modes on mechanical properties and microstructure of 304L stainless steel parts fabricated by laser-foil-printing additive manufacturing. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 112, 867–877 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-020-06402-7

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