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Main Authors: Ren, Zhongshu, Clark, Samuel J., Gao, Lin, Fezzaa, Kamel, Sun, Tao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02775
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author Ren, Zhongshu
Clark, Samuel J.
Gao, Lin
Fezzaa, Kamel
Sun, Tao
author_facet Ren, Zhongshu
Clark, Samuel J.
Gao, Lin
Fezzaa, Kamel
Sun, Tao
contents A variety of protective or reactive environmental gases have recently gained growing attention in laser-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies due to their unique thermophysical properties and the potential improvements they can bring to the build processes. However, much remains unclear regarding the effects of different gas environments on critical phenomena in laser AM, such as rapid cooling, energy coupling, and defect generation. Through simultaneous high-speed synchrotron x-ray imaging and thermal imaging, we identify distinct effects of various environmental gases in laser AM and gained a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Compared to the commonly used protective gas, argon, it is found that helium has a negligible effect on cooling the part. However, helium can suppress unstable keyholes by decreasing effective energy absorption, thus mitigating keyhole porosity generation and reducing pore size under certain processing conditions. These observations provide guidelines for the strategic use of environmental gases in laser AM to produce parts with improved quality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_02775
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Mechanistic Study on Environment Gases in Metal Additive Manufacturing
Ren, Zhongshu
Clark, Samuel J.
Gao, Lin
Fezzaa, Kamel
Sun, Tao
General Physics
A variety of protective or reactive environmental gases have recently gained growing attention in laser-based metal additive manufacturing (AM) technologies due to their unique thermophysical properties and the potential improvements they can bring to the build processes. However, much remains unclear regarding the effects of different gas environments on critical phenomena in laser AM, such as rapid cooling, energy coupling, and defect generation. Through simultaneous high-speed synchrotron x-ray imaging and thermal imaging, we identify distinct effects of various environmental gases in laser AM and gained a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Compared to the commonly used protective gas, argon, it is found that helium has a negligible effect on cooling the part. However, helium can suppress unstable keyholes by decreasing effective energy absorption, thus mitigating keyhole porosity generation and reducing pore size under certain processing conditions. These observations provide guidelines for the strategic use of environmental gases in laser AM to produce parts with improved quality.
title A Mechanistic Study on Environment Gases in Metal Additive Manufacturing
topic General Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02775