Process of Pure Copper Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting (SLM) Technology under Moderate Laser Power with Re-Melting Strategy

Pure copper (Cu) material, because of its high thermal conductivity, can be 3D printed to fabricate effective thermal management components. However, in the selective laser melting (SLM) process, due to copper’s high optical reflectivity, Cu-based parts need to be printed using high laser power. In this study, we demonstrated 3D printing with a re-melting strategy is able to fabricate high-density and low-surface-roughness pure copper parts using only a moderate laser (350 W) power. The effect of the re-scan to initial scan speed ratio on the printing quality resulting from the re-melting strategy is discussed. The re-melting strategy is likened to a localized annealing process that promotes the recrystallization of the newly formed copper microstructures on the re-scan path. Given a hatch spacing of 0.06 mm and a powder layer thickness of 0.05 mm, Cu samples with 93.8% density and low surface roughness (Sa~22.9 μm) were produced using an optimized scan speed of 200 mm/s and a re-scanning speed of 400 mm/s, with a laser power of 350 W. Our work provides an approach to optimize the laser power for printing pure copper 3D parts with high relative density (low porosity) and low surface roughness while ensuring the lifetime stability of the part. The re-melting strategies have broad implications in 3D printing and are particularly relevant for metals with high reflectivity, such as pure copper.