Laser Shock Processing as a Post-Treatment Technique for the Surface and Mechanical Properties Improvement of Additively Manufactured Metallic Parts

Resumen

The characteristic advantage of Additive Manufacturing of being able to create complex geometries not possible with the aid of conventional substractive processes is sometimes obscured by the unsuitability of the surface morphology and mechanical properties of the obtained parts.

Several surface finishing processes able to reduce surface roughness along with an improvement of mechanical properties through the induction of compressive residual stresses fields have been proposed as remediation post-treatments able to prevent catastrophic failure under working conditions and enhance the overall fatigue life of the components.

Among these surface finishing processes, Laser Shock Processing seems to offer advantages mostly referred to high local precision and robot-controlled versatility, treatment intensity controllability and lack of material contamination by external substances along with a clear environmental advantage associate to waste material recycling.

In the present paper the effects introduced by LSP applied to AM’ed parts and the resulting prospects for its use as a suitable post-processing technique are analyzed.