• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.346-351
• /
• 2018

Metal three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies are mainly classified as powder bed fusion (PBF) and direct energy deposition (DED) methods according to the method of application of a laser beam to metallic powder. The DED method can be used to fabricate fine and hard 3D metallic structures by applying a strong laser beam to a thin layer of metallic powder. The PBF method involves slicing 3D graphics to be a certain height, laminating metal powders, and making a 3D structure using a laser. While the DED method has advantages such as laser cladding and metallic welding, it causes problems with low density when 3D shapes are created. The PBF method was introduced to address the structural density issues in the DED method and makes it easier to produce relatively dense 3D structures. In this paper, thin lines were produced by using PBF 3D printers with stainless-steel powder of roughly $30{\mu}m$ in diameter with a galvano scanner and fiber-transferred Nd:YAG laser beam. Experiments were carried out to find the optimal conditions for the width of a line depending on the processing times, laser power, spot size, and scan speed. The optimal conditions were two scanning processes in one line structure with a laser power of 30 W, spot size of $28.7{\mu}m$, and scan speed of 200 mm/s. With these conditions, a minimum width of about $85.3{\mu}m$ was obtained.