Parametric studies on laser additive manufacturing of copper on stainless steel

Abstract

Laser additive manufacturing using directed energy deposition (LAM-DED) technique is one of the recent techniques for fabricating engineering components directly from 3D CAD model data using high power lasers. In this respect, LAM-DED of copper (Cu) and stainless steel (SS) is an enduring research area. However, LAM-DED of Cu is challenging due to higher thermal conductivity, lower absorption to infrared radiation and oxide formation tendency. The present work reports an experimental investigation to evaluate the effect of process parameters on the track geometry, contact angle, inter-diffusion and micro-hardness of Cu tracks deposited on SS 304L substrate using LAM-DED. Analysis of variance is used to estimate the contribution percentage of process parameters on the track geometry. Further, Cu bulk structures are deposited at an identified combination of process parameters and they are subjected to optical microscopy for microstructural characterisation. Further, finite-element-based numerical simulation is performed to understand the temperature distribution during the processing of Cu bulk structures on SS304L and the temperature results are co-related with the microstructural transformation during the processing. This investigation paves a way to understand the effect of processing parameters for building Cu bulk structures on SS Substrate using LAM-DED.