ABSTRACT
Light metal alloys are the most preferred materials in aerospace, defense and automotive industries because of their superior strength-to-weight ratio and high corrosion resistance. With the developments of additive manufacturing techniques, and especially the powder bed fusion method, it has become possible to generate three-dimensional and lightweight parts with complex geometries from these materials. However, their properties are altered by processing conditions. Different process parameters and their interactions result in different product properties such as density, surface quality, dimensional accuracy, mechanical properties and microstructural differences. These properties completely affect the functional life and performance of the AM parts. It is possible to obtain desired product specifications by choosing proper parameter sets. Therefore, it is important to fully understand and define the powder bed fusion process parameters and their effects on final product properties. In this chapter, it is aimed to present a comprehensive review and evaluation on powder bed fusion process parameters such as laser power, beam diameter, scanning speed, layer thickness and hatch distance. These parameters and their effects on dimensional accuracy, surface quality and mechanical properties of light metal alloys such as Ti6Al4V and AlSi10Mg are investigated and discussed in detail with the reference of literature studies.
