Mechanical properties characterisation of AlSi10Mg parts produced by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing refers to a wide class of manufac- turing processes based on the progressive building of func- tional parts through the addition of material layer upon layer. These technologies were first confined to prototyp- ing, but the subsequent development of additive manufac- turing processes for further materials, such as metals, has encouraged their worldwide industrial spread, from the bio- medical field to the automotive and the aerospace indus- tries. Additively manufactured parts are required to meet high and stable performance, at least comparable to that of conventional wrought materials, so as to comply with strict and well-defined international standards. This paper pre- sents an investigation into the mechanical properties of Al- Si10Mg parts produced by laser powder bed fusion techni- que, using different spatial orientations within the build volume. The effects of the part position and orientation on the static (tensile) properties of the produced parts were as- sessed by means of the two-way analysis of variance techni- que. The build angle was found to be the most effective pa- rameter, while the variability ascribable to the effect of part position resulted mainly as physiological. The fatigue resis- tance showed a globally decreasing trend with increasing build angle.