High Value Manufacturing – Bártolo et al. (Eds)
© 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-00137-4
Investigation on forming process of copper alloys via Selective Laser
Melting
D.Q. Zhang, Z.H. Liu & C.K. Chua
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
ABSTRACT: In this research, UNS C18400 copper alloy was selected for the Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
process. C18400 is a thermally precipitation hardenable copper alloy with good thermal and electrical conductiv-
ity. SLM C18400 samples with relative density of 96.74% were produced using a uniform laser beam with laser
power 800 W, scan speed 600 mm/s, hatch spacing 0.1 mm, layer thickness 0.05 mm and base plate preheating
of 100
◦
C. The microstructure was characterised and its forming process ...