Effect of hatch distance on CuSn10 specimens by selective laser melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) is one of promising additive manufacturing methods, especially for precision parts. It can produce complicated three-dimensional shapes in a layer by-layer style. It has been mainly applied into titanium alloys, nickel alloys and steels.1–3 Tin bronze is widely used as bearing materials for its good friction and wear behaviors. Powders metallurgy (PM), and mechanical ball milling (MBM), and casting are usually used for CuSn10 powder sintering.4–8 The porosity and geometry precision are the most concern problems. Additive manufacturing provides a new way to make tin bronze parts. However, the physical properties of copper are different from titanium, nickel alloys and steels, therefore, it is necessary to investigate the principles of selective laser sintering of tin bronze powder. The main parameters of SLM are laser power, scanning speed, layer thickness and hatch distance. Scudino et al.,9 achieved far better mechanical properties of CuSn10 specimens by SLM corresponding to as-cast properties. Deng et al.,10 studied the effect of laser energy density on the microstructure, mechanical properties of Tin bronze parts by SLM and found the laser energy density is the main factor for porosity formation and the mechanical properties. In this paper, The SLM of tin bronze (CuSn10) powder was performed with same laser energy density to investigate the effect of scanning speed and hatch distance on microstructure and mechanical properties.