Numerical Investigations on Hatching Process Strategies for Powder Bed Based Additive Manufacturing using an Electron Beam

Abstract: This paper investigates in hatching process strategies for additive manufacturing using an electron beam by numerical simulations. The underlying physical model and the corresponding three dimensional thermal free surface lattice Boltzmann method of the simulation software are briefly presented. The simulation software has already been validated on the basis of experiments up to 1.2 kW beam power by hatching a cuboid with a basic process strategy, whereby the results are classified into porous',good' and `uneven', depending on their relative density and top surface smoothness. In this paper we study the limitations of this basic process strategy in terms of higher beam powers and scan velocities to exploit the future potential of high power electron beam guns up to 10 kW. Subsequently, we introduce modified process strategies, which circumvent these restrictions, to build the part as fast as possible under the restriction of a fully dense part with a smooth top surface. These process strategies are suitable to reduce the build time and costs, maximize the beam power usage and therefore use the potential of high power electron beam guns.