Investigation of Scanning Strategy Effects on Porosity and Hardness in Selective Laser Melting of H13 Tool Steel

This paper presents partial results of a study aimed at optimizing the selective laser melting (SLM) process applied to H13 tool steel. An experimental investigation was conducted to explore the influence of printing parameters, particularly the laser scanning strategy, on the mechanical properties of SLM-manufactured parts. To achieve this objective, eight experimental conditions with different scanning strategies were studied following an in-depth literature review. In this study, porosity and hardness were determined for parts printed using an SLM machine with two scanning strategies: a simple bidirectional approach and a chess pattern with four rotation angles 0°, 45°, 67°, and 90° for each.