Investigation on surface characteristics of wall structures out of stainless steel 316L manufactured by laser powder bed fusion

Pressure equipment poses a high risk of harming people and the environment in case of failure. They are, therefore, highly regulated by the Pressure Equipment Directive. To enable laser powder bed fusion of metals (PBF-LB/M) for the manufacturing of such components, component appearance and quality need to be characterized and qualified for each specific system. In this study, the surface roughness of wall structures out of austenitic stainless steel (316L) is investigated. Wall structure specimens were produced by four manufacturing systems on different PBF-LB/M machines and with different powder materials. Surface roughness of specimens are compared in the upskin and downskin areas in relation to different slope angles and wall thicknesses. Although different process setups, parameters and powder feedstocks have been used, similarities in the dependency of the surface roughness related to the slope angle and wall thickness can be observed. This work furthermore presents a mechanism-based analytical approach to predict system-specific surface roughness. Particularly, the analytical approach on the influence of slope angle on the surface roughness of the downskin areas has not been covered in publications about PBF-LB/M before. The results of this work enable the prediction of system-specific surface roughness, which is especially important for parts with downskin areas and hidden surfaces without the possibility of additional surface treatment.