Rapid Prototyping Journal

Emerald Article: Factor analysis of selective laser melting process

parameters and geometrical characteristics of synthesized single tracks
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand, Igor Smurov

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laser melting process parameters and geometrical characteristics of synthesized single tracks", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol.
18 Iss: 3 pp. 201 - 208
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Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand, Igor Smurov, (2012),"Factor analysis of selective laser melting process
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552541211218117

Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand, Igor Smurov, (2012),"Factor analysis of selective laser melting process
parameters and geometrical characteristics of synthesized single tracks", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 18 Iss: 3 pp. 201 - 208
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552541211218117

Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand, Igor Smurov, (2012),"Factor analysis of selective laser melting process
parameters and geometrical characteristics of synthesized single tracks", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 18 Iss: 3 pp. 201 - 208
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552541211218117

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 Factor analysis of selective laser melting
process parameters and geometrical
characteristics of synthesized single tracks
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov
National Engineering School of St-Etienne (ENISE), DIPI Laboratory, Saint Etienne, France

Abstract
Purpose – Properties of the parts manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM) depend strongly on the each single laser-melted track and each single
layer, as well as the strength of the connections between them. The purpose of this paper to establish links between the principal SLM parameters
(laser power density, scanning speed, layer thickness), properties of the powder and geometrical characteristics of single tracks. This study will provide
a theoretical and technical basis for production of parts from metal powders.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the SLM parameters affecting on geometrical characteristics of the synthesized single tracks.
Granulomorphometric characteristics of powders were studied in detail. A Greco-Latin square design was used to control geometrical characteristics of
the tracks. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) permitted to establish a statistically significant influence of the SLM process parameters on geometry of the
single laser-melted track.
Findings – The behavior of individual tracks and their geometric characteristics depend on the process parameters, and physical-chemical and
granulomorphometrical properties of the powder. Each powder shows peculiar behavior in the process of single track formation. For stainless steel grade
904L powders with different particle size it was found that the most influencing parameter is the laser power (the following values were applied: 25, 37.5,
50 W), and then, in order of decreasing importance, are the powder layer thickness (60, 90, 120 mm), the scanning speed (0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m/s), and,
finally, the particle size.
Originality/value – The proposed hierarchy of the process parameters is a new systematic study presented by the authors, developed for selective
laser melting. Obtained data can be used in surface structuring and micro-manufacturing characterized by a small number of layers within a part and,
thus, sensible to the geometric dimensions and shape of the individual tracks.

Keywords Manufacturing systems, Physical properties of materials, Additive manufacturing, Selective laser melting, Metal powders,
Microfabrication

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction changing laser power or scanning speed can lead to various

The essential operation in selective laser melting (SLM) is the
laser beam scanning over the surface of a thin powder layer
previously deposited on a substrate. The forming process
proceeds along the scanning direction of the laser beam. Each
cross-section (layer) of the part is sequentially filled with
elongated lines (tracks) of molten powder, i.e. SLM part is the
superposition of tracks and layers and their properties depend
strongly on each single track and each single layer, as well as
the strength of the connections between them.
Physical behaviour of “laser radiation – powder –
substrate” system includes absorption, reflection, radiation
and heat transfer, phase transformations, a moving interface
between solid phase and liquid phase, fluid flow caused by
surface tension gradient and mass transportation within the
molten pool, and chemical reactions. This system has non-
linear response when the process parameters are modified:
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undesirable effects as irregularity and balling effect
(Yadroitsev et al., 2010).
Nowadays, to increase the productivity of the SLM process,
high laser power (up to 400 W) and high scanning speed (up to
3 m/s) are used. However, for the micro-manufacturing
industry it is possible to use compact laser of low power
with high quality laser radiation and small focal spot diameter;
near 106 W/cm2 laser power density is sufficient for melting
metal powders (Li, 2000).
Since 3D objects in SLM are produced layer-by-layer, layer
thickness is one of the determinant factors of this process
(Yadroitsev and Smurov, 2010). Thickness and apparent
density of a deposited layer determines how much powder will
be melted by a single laser scan. Smaller layer thickness allows
for better accuracy of the manufactured part, and also better
remelting of the previous layer thus providing stronger bond
between the layers. On the other hand, it increases
manufacturing time. While choosing thickness of a layer, it is
necessary to consider the particle size and shrinkage
during melting. For manufacturing of fully dense objects,
the optimal SLM parameters should provide the maximum

Rapid Prototyping Journal

18/3 (2012) 201– 208 Received: 15 February 2010
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1355-2546] Revised: 11 August 2010, 4 February 2011, 28 April 2011
[DOI 10.1108/13552541211218117] Accepted: 29 June 2011

201
 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov
material deposition rate. The substrate remelting
(every previous layer is a substrate for the following one)
should be optimal in the way that it should not be excessive in
order to preserve geometry of the previous layers (Taylor,
2004) and, at the same time, should be enough for good
adhesion which is important for high mechanical properties of
a produced part.
Powder size and morphology have effect on flowability,
powder layering and packing density. The smallest particles
can fill small voids between larger particles, and thus, the
packing density will be higher. Finer particles provide a larger
surface area which absorbs more laser energy, thereby,
increasing the particle temperature and the melting/
coalescence kinetics (Manthiram et al., 1993; Simchi,
2004). Roughness of the powder grains can affect the
absorptivity of the powder bed. Irregularly shaped or non-
symmetric particles may assume a preferred (non-random)
orientation within a powder mass, and this may cause
anisotropic shrinkage. Related difficulties may be avoided by
selecting narrowly sized powders with a rather uniform,
symmetric morphology (Rock and Misiolek, 1996; Heaney,
2004); a powder with spherical particles has a higher
random packing density, which is preferable for SLM
(Karapatis, 2002).
Many material-based input parameters such as chemical
composition, thermal, optical, metallurgical, mechanical,
rheological and other characteristics of the material
influence SLM (Tingskog et al., 2000; Heaney et al., 2004;
Simchi, 2004; Yang and Evans, 2005; Kruth et al., 2005).
Laser power, wavelength, spot size diameter, scanning speed,
powder layer thickness and powder properties are principal
process parameters in SLM (Karapatis, 2002; Childs, 2004;
Rombouts, 2006).
Therefore, it is important to establish links between the
principal SLM parameters (laser power density, scanning
speed, layer thickness), properties of the powder and
geometrical characteristics of single tracks. Obtained data can
be used in surface structuring and micro-part manufacturing
characterized by a small number of layers within a part and,
thus, sensible to the geometric dimensions and shape of the
individual tracks.
2. Materials and experimental procedure
Stainless steel (SS) grade 904L is an austenitic nickel-
chromium steel which is widely used in the chemical,
pharmaceutical, petrochemical, energy and pollution control
industries. This alloy is generally considered to be more
corrosion resistant than 316L SS. Two pre-alloyed gas-
atomized SS grade 904L powders with different particle size
from Sandvik Osprey Ltd were used in our study. The
chemical composition (% wt.) of powders was the following:
Fe – balance, Ni – 23-28 percent, Cr – 19-23 percent, Mo –
4-5 percent, Cu – 1-2 percent, Si – 2 percent max, Mn –
0.55 percent, C – 0.02 percent max, P – 0.045 percent max,
S – 0.035 percent max. Molybdenum and copper increase
resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion and to general
corrosion in reducing acids; the higher nickel content provides
good resistance to chlorides. The low carbon content provides
resistance to intergranular corrosion in the laser treatment or
stress relieved condition. The corrosion resistance of SS grade
904L makes it a useful alloy in numerous severe operating
environments (The Engineering ToolBox, 2005).
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Rapid Prototyping Journal
Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208
Granulomorphological analysis of the particles was carried
out by an optical granulomorphometer ALPAGA 500 NANO
which is a real-time optical sieving system, and the
CALLISTO image analysis software (OCCHIO s.a.).
Powders were dried by heating up to þ 808C during
12 hours, and then cooled in a cooling chamber. Apparent
and tap densities were measured at room temperature and
relative air humidity of 50-55 percent.
Experiments were carried out on SLM machine PM 100
(Phenix Systems). The source of radiation is YLR-50,
continuous-wave Ytterbium fiber laser by IPG Photonics
operating at the wavelength of 1,075 nm with maximum laser
power P ¼ 50 W. The laser spot size on the surface of the
powder bed is about 70 mm. The process chamber provides a
closed environment filled by nitrogen as a protective gas.
Operational temperature of the process chamber was fixed
at 808C.
3. Results and discussion
3.1 Powder characterization
Quality of the deposited layer is of prime importance in SLM
since SLM is a layer-by-layer technique. The layers must be
deposited with constant thickness and homogeneity. The
thicker regions may lead to insufficiently remelting depth into
previously remelted layer, as well as provoke the “balling”
effect (Yadroitsev, 2009). This significantly affects the quality
of the manufactured parts. Several parameters such as
chemical composition, method of powder fabrication,
particle size distribution, particle shape, layer thickness and
powder flowability influence the deposition process, packing
density and, finally, homogeneity of a powder layer
(Heaney et al., 2004; Tingskog et al., 2000; Heaney, 2004).
Any heterogeneity in packing density throughout a powder
layer can result in non-uniform shrinkage behaviour when one
region of the powder layer consolidates more rapidly than
another region (Rock and Misiolek, 1996).
Particle size of the powders employed in this study is
presented in Table I. SEM images of the powders made at the
same magnification are shown in Figure 1 in order to compare
particle sizes. The particles are predominantly spherical.
For powder A, particles with equivalent diameter less than
3.8 mm occupied 25 percent of the volume, 3.8(6.4 mm
particles – 50 percent of the volume, the largest particles were
8.7 mm-sized (Figure 2(a, b)). Apparent density was
34 ^ 3 percent, tap density was 44 ^ 5 percent. For powder
B, particles with equivalent diameter less than 7.7 mm occupied
25 percent of the volume, 7.7(15.2 mm particles – 50 percent
of the volume, the largest particles were 25 mm-sized
(Figure 2(c, d)). Apparent and tap densities were 44 ^ 1 and
52 ^ 1 percent, respectively. A decrease in particle size leads to
Table I Powder characteristics
Materials
Powder characteristics Powder A Powder B
Equivalent diameter (weight by volume), mm p10 3.0 5.1
p50 5.0 11.2
p90 7.5 18.5
–1
Volume specific surface, mm 1.363 0.684
Notes: p10-p50-p90 are 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles of studied indexes;
10-50-90 percentiles are the values below which 10-50-90 percent of the
observations may be found
 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks Rapid Prototyping Journal
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208

Figure 1 SEM micrographs of the employed powders

powder A powder B

Figure 2 Equivalent diameter distribution by number (a, c) and by volume (b, d) of powder A (a, b) and B (c, d)

100 100

c d
Cumulative frequency by number, %

Cumulative frequency by volume, %

80 a 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
Equivalent diameter, µm

an increase in number of contacts, which causes an increase in
internal friction coefficient, particles aggregate (Figure 1), the
powder flowability and apparent density decrease (Karapatis,
2002; Popov et al., 2003).
3.2 Factor analysis of SLM parameters
Experiments were carried out to analyse the influence of SLM
parameters (laser power, scanning speed, layer thickness,
particle size) on the geometrical characteristics of synthesized
single tracks. The range of process parameters for continuous
tracks at 50 mm-layer thickness of SS grade 904L powder
were determined previously (Yadroitsev et al., 2007):
power density 0.65-1.3 MW/cm2 (25-50 W laser power
for 70 mm-laser spot diameter), scanning speed within
0.05-0.18 m/s.
Since thickness of a deposited layer determines how much
powder will be melted by a single laser scan, the appropriate
choice of the experimental layer thickness was carried out.
The single tracks were formed by laser beam with power of
50 W at fixed scanning speed V ¼ 0.10 m/s and smoothly
varied layer thickness h ¼ 0/200 mm. The continuous tracks
with penetration into substrate were achieved for layer
thickness up to 130 mm, with the increase of layer thickness
balling effect was observed (Figure 3). For small layer
thickness of powder the height of the melted tracks is
negligible and stable zone (in which track is continuous) is
strongly enlarged (Yadroitsev, 2009). Thus, for powder B
(groups 1-9) and A (groups 10-18), three layer thickness were
chosen: 60, 90, 120 mm.
Greco-Latin square design (Table II) was used to control
characteristics of the synthesized tracks. At laser power 50,
37.5, 25 W and scanning speed 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m/s for a fixed
powder layer thickness (60, 90 or 120 mm) single laser melted
tracks were produced. Track length was 40 mm, hatch
distance was 1 mm to prevent interaction between tracks.
Six individual tracks were produced for each set of parameters
(groups); geometrical characteristics of their cross-sections
were analyzed: track width and height (w1, h1), width of the
contact zone (w2), ratio (w2/w1), remelting depth (h2), ratio
(h2/h1), average value of the contact angle (a ¼ (a1 þ a2)/2)
(Figure 4).
Data was statistically analyzed using statistical analysis
software Statistica 6.0 (StatSoft, Inc.). Descriptive statistics

203
 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov
Figure 3 Top view of single tracks on steel substrate
0 µm 50 µm
Notes: Thickness of the deposited powder layer h varied 0/200 mm, laser power P = 50W,
scanning speed V = 0.10 m/s
Table II Test plan with three factors and three levels (Greco-Latin square) for the employed powders
Layer thickness 60 mm
Power 25 W Scanning speed 0.15 m/s (groups 1, 10)
Power 37.5 W Scanning speed 0.05 m/s (groups 2, 11)
Power 50 W Scanning speed 0.10 m/s (groups 3, 12)
Figure 4 Measurement of the synthesized track geometry
h1
a1 a2
h2
w2
w1 100 µm
were calculated for 108 (6 £ 9 for powder A and 6 £ 9 for
powder B) single tracks (Table III). The analysis of variance
(ANOVA) performed to investigate parameters with
significant effects (significance level p , 0.01). ANOVA uses
F-statistic – ratio {found variation of the group averages}/
{expected variation of the group averages} – to test the null
hypotheses that the means of all the groups are equal. If the
calculated value of F is greater than a criterion, the null
hypothesis is rejected. It implies that mean values of the all
groups are not equal and the parameter is a factor with
a significant effect (ANOVA/MANOVA, 2010, Choi and
Chang, 2005). The probability of error corresponding F-test
Rapid Prototyping Journal
Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208
100 µm 150 µm 200 µm
h
powder B
powder A
2 mm
Layer thickness 90 mm Layer thickness 120 mm
Scanning speed 0.10 m/s (groups 4, 13) Scanning speed 0.05 m/s (groups 7, 16)
Scanning speed 0.15 m/s (groups 5, 14) Scanning speed 0.10 m/s (groups 8, 17)
Scanning speed 0.05 m/s (groups 6, 15) Scanning speed 0.15 m/s (groups 9, 18)
value (significance) is shown in the right column of Table IV
under the heading p.
A single track formed from a metal powder is wider than the
molten zone on a substrate from the same material. Powder
has a higher absorptivity and a smaller thermal conductivity
compared to the bulk material. It is worth to mention the
effect of substrate denudation owing to the fact that not only
the powder in the laser irradiation zone is involved in the
single track forming process but also the powder from the
adjacent areas (Yadroitsev et al., 2010). The height of a
formed continuous track generally does not exceed the
thickness of the powder layer. When the balling effect starts,
tracks become irregular with great variation in geometric
characteristics (Table III; Figure 5).
The “power” factor has statistically significant influence
( p , 0.01) on the distribution of all the parameters studied.
The greatest ANOVA effect of the laser power was established
on the remelted depth h2 (60 percent) and on the width of the
contact zone w2 (54 percent). The proportion of the explained
variation by power was about 30 percent for the contact angle
a and the ratios h2/h1, w2/w1. And, finally, for the track width
w1, it was 19 percent, and for the track height h1 – 6 percent
(Table IV; Figure 6). Similar results were found by André
(2007); it has been quantitatively estimated that the laser
energy density is the process parameter which has the greatest
influence on the degree of the sintering of the SS grade 316L
powder.
In comparison with the “laser power” factor, the “scanning
speed” has low statistically significant influence on the single
track width w1 and the contact zone w2 (the proportion of the
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 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks Rapid Prototyping Journal
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208

Table III Means and standard errors of the synthesized track geometric characteristics within the examined groups
Group number w1, mm w2, mm w2/w1 h1, mm h2, mm h2/h1 a,8
Powder B
1 75 ^ 7.8 37 ^ 9.5 0.47 ^ 0.13 75 ^ 6.1 4 ^ 1.2 0.06 ^ 0.02 65 ^ 9.1
2 155 ^ 6.7 120 ^ 3.7 0.78 ^ 0.02 67 ^ 5.4 29 ^ 1.4 0.45 ^ 0.03 85 ^ 5.7
3 133 ^ 2.1 105 ^ 2.2 0.79 ^ 0.01 56 ^ 6.3 32 ^ 2.6 0.57 ^ 0.04 104 ^ 3.5
4 116 ^ 6.3 44 ^ 10.2 0.37 ^ 0.09 95 ^ 7.3 8 ^ 1.9 0.08 ^ 0.02 73 ^ 5.0
5 120 ^ 9.5 80 ^ 5.7 0.67 ^ 0.03 97 ^ 9.8 22 ^ 1.7 0.23 ^ 0.03 94 ^ 4.2
6 138 ^ 8.7 108 ^ 5.7 0.78 ^ 0.01 93 ^ 9.2 25 ^ 1.9 0.27 ^ 0.03 108 ^ 1.8
7 140 ^ 8.2 74 ^ 6.8 0.54 ^ 0.06 120 ^ 6.1 9 ^ 2.2 0.08 ^ 0.03 78 ^ 5.7
8 147 ^ 10.9 91 ^ 9.1 0.63 ^ 0.05 111 ^ 7.4 14 ^ 1.5 0.13 ^ 0.02 93 ^ 5.8
9 213 ^ 12.3 120 ^ 14.5 0.56 ^ 0.04 100 ^ 8.7 33 ^ 4.9 0.33 ^ 0.06 107 ^ 7.5
Powder A
10 101 ^ 4.0 59 ^ 2.4 0.58 ^ 0.03 49 ^ 2.0 13 ^ 0.7 0.26 ^ 0.02 117 ^ 6.6
11 135 ^ 2.2 110 ^ 4.5 0.82 ^ 0.03 62 ^ 0.6 34 ^ 0.8 0.56 ^ 0.01 116 ^ 2.9
12 121 ^ 8 96 ^ 4.5 0.81 ^ 0.05 38 ^ 3.5 42 ^ 1.1 1.18 ^ 0.13 133 ^ 4.1
13 112 ^ 4.2 63 ^ 3.8 0.57 ^ 0.05 91 ^ 2.8 11 ^ 1.2 0.12 ^ 0.01 64 ^ 7.1
14 110 ^ 2.6 88 ^ 3.8 0.8 ^ 0.04 89 ^ 5.3 21 ^ 1.7 0.23 ^ 0.02 94 ^ 3.4
15 177 ^ 14.3 128 ^ 4.0 0.74 ^ 0.05 97 ^ 7.6 42 ^ 3.3 0.45 ^ 0.06 103 ^ 4.9
16 137 ^ 8.8 50 ^ 11.1 0.38 ^ 0.1 130 ^ 3.7 4 ^ 1.4 0.03 ^ 0.01 71 ^ 6.6
17 155 ^ 13.4 85 ^ 3.5 0.57 ^ 0.06 122 ^ 4.8 19 ^ 1.4 0.16 ^ 0.02 86 ^ 7.8
18 120 ^ 6.8 88 ^ 7.6 0.74 ^ 0.06 88 ^ 10.4 19 ^ 3.6 0.23 ^ 0.05 105 ^ 5.9

explained variation is about 8 percent). Estimate of the effect
size was 3-4 percent for height h1, remelted depth h2 and ratio
h2/h1 (Table IV; Figure 6). Irregularity of the tracks was
observed for both low and high values of the scanning speed
(V ¼ 0.05 m/s, groups 15, 16; V ¼ 0.10 m/s, groups 4, 13;
V ¼ 0.15 m/s, groups 1, 9, 18).
The parametric study showed that high scanning speeds
combined with high laser power result in less balling effect
(Yadroitsev et al., 2007). At the same energy input P/V,
average penetration into the substrate h2 was higher for higher
power: groups 4 and 5, 13 and 14 (Table III; Figure 5). The
molten powder better wets the substrate during the formation
of a joint molten pool, in that case, the track height decreases,
and the track width and the contact angles increase (Table III;
Figure 7). The depth of penetration into the substrate is
determined primarily by the power of laser radiation.
Indirectly, this also confirmed the higher Spearman rank
correlation coefficient: it was 0.79 for laser power P and depth
of penetration h2 and 0.56 for energy input P/V and depth of
penetration h2.
Powder volume involved in melting process increases with
layer thickness, therefore, the factor “layer thickness” showed
statistically significant influence on the height of the
synthesized track h1 (estimate of the effect size 51 percent)
and h2/h1 ratio (23 percent). Obviously, the track width is
determined by the diameter of the laser spot, the energy
input, the thermal properties of the material, etc. (their total
contribution is 85 percent) and only 15 percent of the
explained variation of the track width w1 was due to the “layer
thickness” factor. The proportion of the explained variation
by this factor was 8-9 percent for w2/w1 ratio, the contact
angle a and the remelted depth h2.
On the whole, the geometric characteristics of the tracks are
determined by the energy parameters (laser power and
scanning speed) and the thickness of the deposited powder;
the effect of powder size on the geometric characteristics of
the tracks was small and averaged 2-7 percent. Nevertheless,
the formation of a stable molten zone when using fine or
coarse powder has some peculiarities. Powder with finer
particles has greater volume specific surface (Table I), that
leads to absorbing more laser energy, increasing working
temperature and, thus, sintering kinetics (Niu and Chang,
1999; Simchi, 2004, 2006). The thermal conductivity of
powders also depends essentially on the number of contacts
between the particles (Brailsford and Major, 1964;
Gusarov et al., 2003; Rombouts et al., 2005). Apparent
density for fine powder A was by 30 percent smaller than that
of powder B. Due to lower apparent density of fine powder,
laser radiation interacted not only with powder, but caused
the melting of the substrate, by directly interacting with it at
60 mm-layer thickness. As shown in (Yadroitsev et al., 2010),
the substrate remelting is crucial for stabilizing the SLM
process. Thus, for more fine powder A at 60 mm layer
thickness and 25 W-laser power (group 10), the balling effect
is not found, and the behavior of the tracks is stable unlike
coarse powder B (group 1). The melt volume increases with
the energy absorbed by the powder and the layer thickness
(Gu and Shen, 2007; Yadroitsev et al., 2007). The melt
hydrodynamics (driven by Marangony effect) becomes
increasingly important, and the sintered track irregularity
appears (group 15). When energy is insufficient to melt the
substrate, and, thus, the stabilizing effect of the contact zone
(penetration into substrate) disappears (groups 4, 13, 16)
droplets start forming. Balling effect is also found at 120 mm
layer thickness in groups 9 and 18, where high scanning speed
leads to capillary instability of the segmental cylinder
(Yadroitsev et al., 2010).
Thus, the behavior of individual tracks and their geometric
characteristics depend on the process parameters, physical-
chemical and granulomorphometrical properties of the powder.

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 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks Rapid Prototyping Journal
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208

Table IV ANOVA for the geometric characteristics of the single tracks

SS Degrees of freedom MS F p
Main effect of ANOVA for width of a track (w1)
Laser power 24827 2 12413 16.445 0.000
Layer thickness 19474 2 9737 12.899 0.000
Scanning speed 10565 2 5282 6.998 0.001
Powder size 1658 1 1658 2.196 0.142
Error 75484 100 755
Main effect of ANOVA for width of contact zone (w2)
Laser power 55749.4 2 27874.7 73.484 0.000
Scanning speed 8471.0 2 4235.5 11.166 0.000
Powder size 58.4 1 58.4 0.154 0.696
Layer thickness 198.5 2 99.2 0.262 0.770
Error 37932.8 100 379.3
Main effect of ANOVA for ratio width of contact zone/ width of a track (w2/w1)
Laser power 1.3670 2 0.684 31.757 0.000
Layer thickness 0.353 2 0.177 8.203 0.0005
Powder size 0.057 1 0.057 2.631 0.108
Scanning speed 0.050 2 0.025 1.163 0.317
Error 2.152 100 0.022
Main effect of ANOVA for height of a track (h1)
Layer thickness 43186.2 2 21593.1 76.148 0.000
Powder size 4804.0 1 4804.0 16.941 0.0001
Laser power 5104.9 2 2552.4 9.001 0.0002
Scanning speed 3265.6 2 1632.8 5.758 0.004
Error 28356.7 100 283.6
Main effect of ANOVA for remelted depth (h2)
Laser power 10566.46 2 5283.23 113.27 0.000
Layer thickness 1610.17 2 805.08 17.26 0.000
Scanning speed 520.67 2 260.34 5.58 0.005
Powder size 293.70 1 293.70 6.3 0.014
Error 4664.28 100 46.64
Main effect of ANOVA for ratio remelted depth/ height of a track (h2/h1)
Laser power 2.595 2 1.297 44.423 0.000
Layer thickness 1.935 2 0.968 33.136 0.000
Powder size 0.552 1 0.552 18.897 0.000
Scanning speed 0.279 2 0.14 4.781 0.01
Error 2.920 100 0.029
Main effect of ANOVA for contact angle (a)
Laser power 18238.8 2 9119.4 30.344 0.000
Layer thickness 4500.2 2 2250.1 7.487 0.001
Powder size 2313.4 1 2313.4 7.698 0.007
Scanning speed 482.9 2 241.4 0.803 0.451
Error 30053.9 100 300.5

Each powder shows peculiar behavior in the process of single
track formation.
4. Conclusions
It was shown that the degree of influence of the process
parameters on the geometric characteristics of single tracks
is different. The ANOVA has permitted to establish a
hierarchy of the process parameters for SS grade 904L
powders with different particle size: the most influencing
parameter is the laser power (the following values were
applied: 25, 37.5, 50 W), and then, in order of decreasing
importance, are the powder layer thickness (60, 90, 120 mm),
the scanning speed (0.05, 0.10, 0.15 m/s), and, finally, the
particle size.
It can be concluded that SLM is a suitable technique for micro-
manufacturing and surface structuring. For producing one-layer
micro-parts, parameters of groups 14 and 5 (laser power
P ¼ 37.5 W, scanning speed V ¼ 0.15 m/s, layer thickness
H ¼ 90 mm) are most appropriate for the studied cases,
because they provide stable tracks and small penetration into
the substrate, thus, the part can be easily separated
from the substrate. For micro-parts consisting of several layers,
parameters may differ for first layer and consequent layers
because it is necessary to increase the depth of penetration
in order to obtain good mechanical properties of the
manufactures part. For this case, parameters of group 12 for

206
 SLM process parameters and synthesized single tracks Rapid Prototyping Journal
Igor Yadroitsev, Ina Yadroitsava, Philippe Bertrand and Igor Smurov Volume 18 · Number 3 · 2012 · 201 –208

Figure 5 Typical cross-sections of the single tracks for different process parameters

Figure 6 Graphic illustration of the statistically significant ( p #0.01) Figure 7 Means, standard errors (SE) and 95 percent confidential
proportion of explained variance (%) of the track geometric intervals (conf. int.) of the contact angles for the examined groups
characteristics
160

140

120
Contact angle,°

100

80

60

40
Mean ±SE ± 95% Conf. int.
20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Group number

powder A and of group 3 for powder B were found

the most appropriate (laser power P ¼ 50 W, scanning
speed V ¼ 0.10 m/s, layer thickness H ¼ 60 mm). The
proposed approach can be applied for further development of
the micro-manufacturing strategy and optimization of the SLM
process.
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Corresponding author
Igor Yadroitsev can be contacted at: yadroitsev@enise.fr