Process parameters effect and porosity reduction on AlSi10Mg parts manufactured by selective laser melting

A study was carried out about the processing parameters influence of an AlSi10Mg part manufactured by a selective laser melting process in order to determine its optimal values and improve density and mechanical performance. For this purpose, a design of experiment (DoE) was realized by the Taguchi method selecting a set of appropriate processing parameters (9 combinations), resulting in 45 samples whose relative densities were measured by Archimedes' principle and metallographic image digital processing. The results showed that a relative density of up to 99.65% was achieved from raw data. While the statistical model by the Taguchi method indicated a comprehensive relationship between process parameters based on relative density, laser power was of major significance among the parameters. The Taguchi model suggested new values of process parameters, achieving AlSi10Mg parts with 99.98% of relative density. To contrast the mechanical properties of both optimized and non-optimized parts, they were characterized by tension testing.