Direct Machining of selective laser melted components with optimized support structures

Selective laser melting (SLM), as a rapidly growing additive manufacturing technology, is used to produce complex components with integrated functionalities. Nevertheless, limited part properties like surface roughness or geometrical accuracy impede their direct use right after printing. Therefore, functional surfaces have to be post-processed (e.g. milling, grinding, polishing), which significantly raises the product costs. To increase the process efficiency, direct post-processing without part removal from the build platform is presented. For this, geometrical accuracy was investigated and cutting forces were measured to investigate their influence on the stability of the support structures to allow precise machining and an increased productivity.