Tin-bronze alloys with a tin content of at least 10 wt% have excellent mechanical properties, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. Among these alloys, Cu-10Sn was investigated in this study for production with the laser powder bed fusion process with a 500W Yb:YAG laser. In particular, a design of experiment (DoE) was developed in order to identify the optimal process parameters to obtain full density, low surface roughness, and high dimensional accuracy. Samples were characterized with Archimedes' method and optical microscopy to determine their final density. It was shown that the first method is fast but not as reliable as the second one. A first mechanical characterization was performed through microhardness tests. Finally, a set of process parameters was identified to produce fully dense samples with low surface roughness and high accuracy. The results showed that the volumetric energy density could represent an approach that is too simplified, therefore limiting the direct correlation with the physical aspects of the process.
Keywords: Archimedes’ density; laser powder bed fusion; optical microscopy; surface roughness; tin-bronze alloys; volumetric energy density.