SURFACE PATTERN FORMATION UNDER CONSTANT AVERAGE LASER POWER USING A PULSED SLS LASER SYSTEM

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Ülke İ.

9th INTERNATIONAL BLACK SEA MODERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH CONGRESS, Düzce, Türkiye, 1 - 03 Ağustos 2026, ss.728-732, (Tam Metin Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Düzce
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Türkiye
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.728-732
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Gazi Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology is generally studied via processing parameters like laser power, scan speed, hatch distance, and layer thickness. Yet, in those cases where pulsing is present in the laser emission, the same value of average laser power might be reached through diverse combinations of pulse period and pulse width. It means that average power does not completely reflect the features of laser energy transmission. This work is focused on surface pattern generation with constant average laser power in pulsed SLS laser system. The primary aim is to analyse the influence of pulse timing on laser trace formation with constant average laser power.


Experiments were conducted on a Solidzer 450 Pro SLS device provided by Sintertek, Türkiye. Two key variables included pulse period and pulse width, whereas the average laser power was kept approximately at 25 W. The power of the laser beam was measured via the Calibrated Coherent PM10-19C laser power meter. These measurements were taken on the optical axis of the SLS device including the zone after focusing optics and at the build platform level beneath the protective glass. In this way, it was guaranteed that selected pulse parameter combinations resulted in nearly equal average power values.

 

To isolate the influence of pulse timing from powder-related factors such as particle morphology, melting behaviour, consolidation, and layer formation, the laser beam was directed onto paper instead of a powder bed. The paper surface was used as a visual substrate to observe the trace patterns produced by different pulse timing conditions. The resulting patterns were photographed and compared in terms of trace continuity, spacing, uniformity, and overall pattern regularity.


It was seen that there was an insignificant variation in the average laser power, which stayed within the limited values of 25.32 W to 25.79 W depending on the combination of different pulse periods and pulse widths. Observations of the surface patterns showed that higher pulse period and pulse width values led to more discontinuous and non-uniform patterns. Shorter pulse periods and pulse widths gave better uniformity in terms of surface pattern formation. Based on the results above, laser emissions have the potential to influence scanning behaviour even when the average laser power does not change. Therefore, the factors mentioned above need to be analysed together with the average laser power in case of pulsed SLS laser systems.