EFFECT OF ORIENTATION DISTANCE ON TEMPERATURE INDUCED PROBLEMS IN MULTI-PART MANUFACTURING BY SELECTIVE LASER MELTING

SLM methods are widely used to manufacture metal parts for functional use in mainly automotive, aerospace and medical industries. Besides many advantages of SLM, manufacturing times take long times and need many costs. In this study, nine samples were manufactured at the same time to set a scenario of multiple samples manufacturing and providing highly productive conditions. Some manufacturing problems such as internal stresses and dimensional distortions occurred during manufacturing. These problems were the result of heterogeneous temperature gradients and geometrical properties. FEA studies were carried out by “Netfabb Ultimate Simulation LT 2019”. Temperature changes were observed, and relations among these temperature changes, residual stresses, as well as dimensional distortions were evaluated. As a result, the orientation distance of samples was an important parameter due to residual stress and displacement. Unsuitable positioning distance between samples caused high dimensional distortion, macro cracks and residual stress. The plastic strain equation was correlated according to the results of the analysis with 7% difference (regression) to define the optimum distance between parts.