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 Investigation of direct metal laser sintering process of iron powder
with low laser power
S. Thongsuwana, A. Ranusawudb, P. Limsuwanc, S. Jaiyena, and P. Buranasiri*d
a
Computer Science Department, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology
Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand 10520; bAML Technology Co., Ltd., Bangkok Thailand; cPhysics
Department, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s Univ. of Technology Thonburi, Thailand 10140;
d
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang,
Bangkok, Thailand 10520

ABSTRACT

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) is layer by layer built up a 3-D part using either a bed or stream of powdered
material. In this paper, the heat transfer and melt solidification of iron powder in the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS)
process with low laser powers have been experimental investigated. The experimental results of various properties of
each layer and properties among the multiple layers due to the laser power, the scanner rate, of the frequency of the laser
pulsed, have been shown and discussed. The process will be improved by using numerical modeling in the future.
Keywords: Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM), Low Laser Power, Iron
Powder, Pulsed Fiber Laser

1. INTRODUCTION
Over the centuries, manufacturing has catalyzed the growth and development of our world in many ways, for example
economically, industry, science and technology, aeronautical and astronautically applications, including medical and
health care delivery. The product came to influence on human in everyday life, and there is a growing demand of
consumer in the future. When the demand is increasing, manufacturing processes need to be improved, and evaluated to
meet increasing demand [1]. So, the topic is challenging, interesting and worth researching.
Even today, the world still realizes that manufacturing is more important and exciting than ever. Advanced
manufacturing not only create very attraction in the manufacturing industry but also includes manufacturing of
innovative products and use of creative principles. Additive Manufacturing (AM) are among technologies considered in
the advanced manufacturing category. AM is layer by layer built up a 3-D part using either a bed or stream. It was found
many influential of lasers in various commercial 3-D printing machines [2, 3]. AM is popular and has been studied and
analyzed in various systems. In industry sector analysis, studying of AM is part design of smart and distributed
manufacturing systems and its coordination in manufacturing networks [4]. The role of AM has been found in medical
and biomedical applications [5-6] and special attention has also been paid as environmentally friendly green
manufacturing technology. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is one of the AM methods, which is used to create 3-D
object from either a bed or stream of metal powder. A number of material powders, such as metal, ceramic, and plastic
and their combination are interested in AM depending on the various applications. Computer technology has been used
for improving the creation of product structure produced by layer-by-layer sintering process have been created. DMLS is
useful in product development and solving the limitation, for creating parts of traditional manufacturing processes in
terms of cost and time [7].
In this paper, we are interested in the development of DMLS process. We used steel powder because it is easy to find and
frequently is used in the general industrial production (Iron MH300). The workpiece with steel powder is molding using
the DMLS process with low laser power. Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) has been worked by directing the output
of a high-power laser.

*prathan.bu@kmitl.ac.th

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 Due to the excessive cost of the equipment the use and production with the high-power laser have been limited to small
companies which have limited financial supporting. With the high demand for production and development in 3-D
printing, research is needed. To meet the demand for production and study of metal forming, we have investigated the
operation of the laser, which is used to form the workpiece and the reaction of the iron powder in the laser shooting with
diverse ways. We also consider the necessary parameters and optimization of the laser. Finally, we shown the results of
the process and also described the results of a structural assessment of a workpiece including the surface, density,
weight, temperature, the quality of the workpiece that is used in the DMLS process with low laser Power. In this
research, we also explained the performance of low laser power and adjust the parameters to optimize the performance of
the production.

2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND PROCEDURES

In this section, we described the basic concepts of the experimental procedure, with including the size, internal structure
of the sample. The laser used in this experiment, setting of the laser parameters, and the material used to produce the
sample are also discussed. Finally, we will examine how these concepts would be used in the system of the
manufacturing.
2.1 Experimental procedure
In this research we were interested in creating a small structure sample, with the size of 1 cm * 1 cm * 0.2 cm. Each 3-D
sample consists of 7 layers and was made up layer by layer. In the process, each layer consists of 2 sublayers, an iron
layer and sintered layer. We prepared the first layer with iron powder. After that, it continued with sintering iron powder
with low laser power. The completion of the DMLS process from 1st layer up to 7th layer is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Describe the structure of seven layers of the sample.

2.2 Fiber laser
The fiber laser was used in the experiment. The fiber laser, generally, has been used to label, make and cut various
materials extremely precisely for manufacturing industries and automotive, also under the process of the production of
DMLS. Due to the low power of pulsed fiber laser the energy is saving. However, there are some problems and
limitations in many respects. The details of the problems are needed to be investigated. In order to improve performance
and to be satisfied, methods to adjust the optimal parameters, for high performance of the product quality have to be

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 known. The properties of the laser are shown in Table 1. Figure 2. described the pulsed emission and parameters of the
fiber laser.
Table 1. Shows features details of fiber laser.

Features details
Average Power 50 W
Center wavelength 1062 nm
Peak Power 12 kW
Pulsed Energy 1 mJ
Pulsed Width 3 ns – 500 ns
Repetition Rate 1 kHz – 1000 kHz

Figure 2. Describe the pulsed emission and parameters of the fiber laser.
Features of laser consist of average power was 50 W, center wavelength was 1062 nm, peak power was 12 kW, pulsed
energy is 1 mJ, pulsed width is between 3 ns and 500 ns, and repetition rate was in between 1 kHz and 1000 kHz. The
infrastructure and material interactions were shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. The infrastructure (A) and material interactions (B) of fiber laser.

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 2.3 Laser parameter setup
Appropriate parameters of the laser are influence part quality. There were two modes of laser used in the experiments by
considered pulsed and waveform settings, i.e. pulsed mode, and continuous wave (CW) mode. With the laser in each
mode, different parameters and adjustments, the different results are observed. For both laser modes, CW and pulsed
modes in the experiment, the power of 34.5 was set. The other parameters of pulsed mode were adjusted according to the
Table 2. for getting the best results. Two parameters, laser power and laser frequency were concentrated at 34.35 W and
900 kHz.
Table 2. Adjusting the parameters of laser in pulsed mode.

Parameter Pulsed
Laser Parameters
Laser Power [W] 34.35
Laser Frequency (f) [kHz] 900.000
Fill Parameters
Filling Type Path with hatch
Line Distance 0.050
Sorting Parameters
Search Radius 2.000
Minimal Jump 0.100

For CW mode the important parameter to get the best results was the speed which was set at 0.05 m/s and 0.03 m/s of
sample1 and sample2 respectively. The other parameters remaining are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Adjusting the parameters of laser in CW mode.

CW
Parameter sample 1 sample 2
Laser Parameters
Laser Power [W] 34.35 34.35
Laser Frequency (f) [kHz] 10 10
Pulsed Length ( P s ) 10 10
FirstPulsedKiller (FPK) ( P s ) 100 100
Speed Parameters
Mark Speed (vm)[m/s] 0.05 0.03
Jump Speed (vj) [m/s] 3 3
Laser Delays
LaserOn Delays ( P s ) 200 200
LaserOff Delays ( P s ) 250 250
Scanner Delays
Jump Speed ( P s ) 300 300
Mark Speed ( P s ) 200 200
Polygon Delay ( P s ) 50 50

2.4 Material
Iron powder was material used to create a product in the experiment. We selected iron powder model MH 300, since iron
powders offer cost efficiency and increase productivity without compromising on process integrity. These powders serve
a wide range of chemical and metallurgical applications, including used in the production of other metals. Feature details

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 of iron powder model MH 300 is as follows with density be equal to 2.8 g/cm3. Manufacturing process has used carbon
reduced sponge iron powder with consists of Fe 99%, H2-loss 0.26%, and C 0.02%, to get the iron powder as shown in
Figure 4.

Figure 4. Describe the manufacturing process of iron powder [8].

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT AND ANALYSIS

The results of this experiment with two laser modes for fabricating three samples, which consists of two samples from
CW mode and one sample from pulsed mode (less sample due to several limitations). We investigated the samples using
a scanning electron microscope (SEM) system for analyzing the physical structure. The arrangement of iron powder in
each layer was analyzed for investigating the hardness of the samples. From the results, it was shown good reports on the
development and validation of DMLS processes using pulsed mode and CW mode in low power laser.
3.1 Cross-section analysis
In sample preparation for cross-section analysis, we brought samples steep in liquid hydrogen, then fractured half of the
sample, and investigated the cross-section of samples by SEM system. As shown in Figure 5. (A) and (B) we used CW
mode, and adjusted the speed parameters to 0.50 m/s and 0.03 m/s of (A) and (B) respectively. As shown in Figure 5 (C)
the frequency of pulsed mode was adjusted to 900 kHz. Since the energy of laser pulsed was high compared with the CW
light from the same laser, the force of the laser will scatter the iron powder, so the iron powder was not sticking to form a
sample. Due to the laser power is low, the lightweight and fine sample would be formed. In pulsed mode, we set laser
frequency parameters at the maximum value of 900 kHz. The result was satisfied, when compared with the other two
samples formed by using CW mode, the characteristics of the different samples are noticeable.

Figure 5. Cross section 70x of samples: (A) CW mode samples 1, (B) CW mode samples 2, and (C) Pulsed mode.
In Figure 5, (A) the structure of any layer parts is less merged and stick to each other less than the structure in (B) which
still was noticed the separation of any layers. In our investigation the layers were well merged and stick together when
we reduced the mark speed parameters from 0.05 is 0.03. m/s. Sincerely, if the speed parameters are too fast, the
adhesion of the iron powder on the layer of each sample was not well coordinated. The speed parameters affected the
quality of the sample.
When analyzing the density of each layer, we found that the layer adhesion qualities of samples (C), (B) and (A) were
shown the best to worse respectively. For ensure and support the above analysis, we increased the magnification of SEM
to the resolution of 10 ȝm for observing the structure within each layer of the samples as shown in Figure 6. As expect

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 the dense and adhesion qualities of each layer in samples (C), (B) and (A) were shown the best to worse respectively
again.

Figure 6. Cross section 5000x of samples: (A) CW mode samples 1, (B) CW mode samples 2, and (C) Pulsed mode
3.2 Surface
The surface of the sample was also analyzed, because the smooth surface is important for the hardness and quality of the
parts. We analyzed all samples with magnification of the SEM resolution of 500 ȝm to observer the surface as shown in
Figure 7.

Figure 7. Surface 500 ȝm of samples: (A) CW mode samples 1, (B) CW mode samples 2, and (C) Pulsed mode
From the surface analysis of the above sample, it is clear that the surfaces of samples using the pulsed mode (C) is
smoother when compare with the surfaces of samples using CW mode. With the CW mode, the samples using lower
speed parameters, i.e. sample that shown in Figure 7(B), was smoother than that of the surface sample that shown in
Figure 7(A).
3.3 Suggestion
In the experimental observation as describe above, each sample was clearly divided into layers, which is not good for the
product quality. We presumed that the process of sprinkling and sweep away using to smooth of iron powder is
ineffective. These affect the process, including time, because, if it takes too much time, the temperature remaining in the
previous layer will decrease, therefore, the iron powder that sprinkles will not be harmonized with the previous layer
because of the lack of heat. In addition to the above mentioned, another important factor of process is the compression of
the iron powder during fabricated. In the process of sprinkling iron powder, if we added more pressing, it will help the
sticking of each layer.
Sample preparation for observing by SEM system is also important on analysis. In this experiment, we prepared a sample
for observing the cross section with using an immersion method in liquid hydrogen (LH2), then separation half of the
sample for cross-sectional view. For this reason, the mechanical exertion for separating the sample leads to the of each
layer of the sample. However, it is a good advantage to us to understand what needs to be improved and modified in the
future for product quality.

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 4. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we show our research starting point to investigation and study the method of laser additive manufacturing
(LAM) using iron powder. We may lack of detailed reports on temperature, due to many equipment restrictions.
Nevertheless, we found some results that make us understand the key factors that affect the quality of the product: laser
mode, laser frequency, speed parameters, and process of sprinkling and sweep away to smooth of iron powder by
analyzing the internal structure in each layer of our samples. Furthermore, we propose that the proper value for
fabricating is using pulsed mode with high frequency and add the pressing process in sprinkling iron powder, which
would help the stick of each layer.

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