Leveraging Digital Build Preparation to Address Lack of Fusion Defects in Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals

During L-PBF digital build job preparation, enabling assignment of process parameters of individual laser vectors, offers a pathway to mitigate lack of fusion defects by controlling the solidified melt pool dimensions of welding tracks. For this study geometries designed to induce significant variations in thermal history were printed to demonstrate the impact of adjusted parameters. These results are contrasted with samples produced without such optimization to highlight the shortcomings of standard parameters in close to up- and downskin areas. This approach aims to fully leverage the digital build job preparation capabilities and the precision of L-PBF of metal powder alloys and outlooks on implications for future quality assurance of L-PBF parts.