Experimental study on the fabrication profile and mechanical properties by substrate-inclined angle using laser melting deposition (LMD) integrating with the substrate of stainless steel

At present, almost all the application of laser melting deposition (LMD) additive manufacturing (AM) are based on horizontal substrate plane, which has greatly limited its extensive application in the field of refabrication (RF) or hybrid manufacturing (HM) in the situation of the substrate plane is inclined. This paper reports on the effect of process parameters and substrate-inclined angle on the fabrication profile of LMD, and mechanical properties of stainless steel part fabricated by HM which combined LMD and subtractive manufacturing (SM) inclined substrate were investigated. The experimental results show that the height and displacement offset of deposition layer are on an upward trend along with the increase of laser power and powder feed rate, and on a downward trend along with scanning speed increase. The increase of substrate-inclined angle results in a slight decrease of deposition height and an increase of displacement offset. The standard tensile and bending samples were fabricated by LMD integrating with substrate of stainless steel, and the mechanical performances experimental results indicate that the tensile strength of interface between substrate and LMD part is higher than the LMD fabrication component, both the tensile and yield strength are obviously enhanced by heat treatment, and they reach up to 653 MPa and 456 MPa, respectively. Subsequently, the interface of LMD and substrate part shows a good bending property, and no fracturing process occurs on the interface regardless of the heat treatment. The substrate-inclined angle has almost no effects on the tensile and bending strengths.