In this study, the effect of increasing exposure time on the microstructures, porosity, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of selective laser melted sample Al-Si10-Mg powder was investigated. The samples were processed at the same power (375 W) and scan speed (2000 mm/s), but with increasing exposure time. Exposure time equal to 40, 50 and 60 µs was applied. The features of the analyzed samples show that with increasing exposure time, greater efficiency of the heat input was obtained, with a larger size of the melt pool and Si particles and lower porosity. Specifically, at the highest exposure time the melt pool showed an increase of 19% in width and 48% in depth, while the volume percentage of the voids decreased by 50% with respect to the lowest exposure time. Moreover, with the coarser microstructure being associated with a lower level of voids, the average hardness is similar for the analyzed samples. Corrosion resistance was evaluated, being one of the most important properties that may affect the service performance of Al-Si10-Mg alloy in the aerospace, marine and automotive industries. The potentiodynamic curves of the samples show that the voids occurrence is more significant with respect to the scale of the microstructure on corrosion behavior, with the sample processed at the highest exposure time being the more resistant to corrosion. The experimental techniques used in the present study were Optical Microscope (OM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), hardness and X-Ray Computed Tomography.

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies enable the design and production of complex geometries, including structures engineered to achieve enhanced mechanical performance. Among these designs, there is growing interest in utilizing metal lattice structures, with specifically required properties, minimizing weight, for applications in both the mechanical and medical fields. The mechanical properties of such structures are strongly influenced by their shape and size. This study aims to investigate the influence of lattice topology, cell dimensions and beam diameter on the deformation and failure mechanisms of Ti6Al4V alloy lattice structures manufactured by EBM under compressive loading. A Design of Experiment (DOE) was adopted to define the unit cell geometry and dimensional parameters of the specimens. Sixteen topological configurations were obtained, and forty-eight lattice specimens (three replicas per configuration) were manufactured in random order to minimize process-related variability. Experimental results were analysed both in absolute terms and as a function of lattice density. In addition, a detailed optical microscopy analysis was performed to statistically evaluate beam diameters and actual cell dimensions. X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was also employed to assess the presence of internal defects, such as porosity, which may affect the mechanical behavior.

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies allow the design and production of complex geometries, including structures designed to exhibit superior mechanical performance. Among these designs, there is growing interest in utilizing metal lattice structures, with specifically required properties, minimizing weight, for applications in both the mechanical and medical fields. The mechanical properties of such structures are strongly influenced by their shape and size.This study aims to investigate the influence of lattice topology, cell dimensions and beam diameter on the deformation and failure mechanisms of Ti6Al4V alloy structures manufactured by EBM under static compressive loading. A Design of Experiment (DOE) methodology was employed to determine the geometric parameters and dimensional characteristics of the unit cell for the final specimen configuration. A total of fifteen topological combinations was obtained and forty-five lattice specimens with three replicas for each cell type were manufactured with random order process to minimize manufacturing time variation and dependence. The full experimental testing results were analysed and compared in absolute terms and related to lattice density. Furthermore, a deep experimental microscopic analysis was conducted for a statistical analysis of representative beam diameters and real cell sizes for lattice samples. Additionally, micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) inspection was employed to verify defect presence (such as porosity) that may affect the mechanical behaviour.

In this study, the effect of increasing exposure time on microstructures, defectiveness, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of selective laser melted sample Al-Si10-Mg powder have been investigated. The sample were processed at the same power (375 W) and scan speed (2000 mm/s) but with increasing exposure time. Exposure time equal to 40, 50 and 60 µs was applied. The features of the analyzed samples show that with increasing exposure time a better efficiency of the heat input has been obtained with larger size of melting pool and Si particles and lower defectiveness. Moreover, being the coarser microstructure associated a to lower level of voids, the average hardness is similar for the analyzed samples. The potentiodynamic curves of the samples show that the voids occurrence is more significant with respect to the scale of micro-structure on corrosion behavior being the sample processed at the highest exposure time the more resistant to corrosion. The experimental techniques used in the present study were Optical microscope, Sem microscope, Hardness and X-Ray Computed Tomography.