1.Effect of laser process parameters on the pores,surface roughness,and hardness of laser selective melting of den-tal cobalt-chrome alloys
Lei SANG ; Jiazhen YAN ; Ning LI ; Chenglai XIN ; Qun WANG ; Chang LIU
West China Journal of Stomatology 2024;42(4):462-469
Objective To address the quality problems caused by high porosity in the preparation of dental cobalt-chrome alloy prosthetics based on selective laser melting(SLM)technology,we investigated the influence mechanism of different forming process parameters on the microstructure and properties of the materials.Moreover,the range of form-ing process parameters that can effectively reduce defects was precisely defined.Methods The effects of laser power,scanning speed,and scanning distance on the pore properties,surface roughness,and hardness of dental cobalt-chrome al-loy were investigated by adjusting the printing parame-ters in the process of SLM.Through metallographic anal-ysis,image analysis,and molten pool simulation,the pore formation mechanism was revealed,and the relation-ship between the porosity and energy density of SLM dental cobalt-chrome alloy was elucidated.Results When the linear energy density was higher than 0.18 J/mm,the po-rosity defect easily appeared at the bottom of the molten pool.When the laser energy density was lower than 0.13 J/mm,defects occurred in the gap of the molten pool due to insufficient melting of powder.In particular,when the linear energy density exceeded the threshold of 0.30 J/mm or was below 0.12 J/mm,the porosity increased significantly to more than 1%.In addition,we observed a negative correlation between free surface roughness and energy density and an inverse re-lationship between macroscopic hardness and porosity.Conclusion On the basis of the conditions of raw materials and molding equipment used in this study,the key process parameters of SLM of molding parts with porosity lower than 1%were successfully determined.Specifically,these key parameters included the line energy density,which ranged from 0.13 J/mm to 0.30 J/mm,and the scan spacing should be strictly controlled below 90 μm.