Laser powder bed fusion of pure copper using ring-shaped beam profiles

Additive manufacturing of copper using laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) enables the production of highly complex components. However, processing of copper by means of near-infrared laser radiation is challenging due to its absorptivity of only 5%–20%. Using a keyhole welding process with a Gaussian intensity distribution increases the absorptivity up to 53% due to multireflection. This enables the production of components with a density larger than 99.5% and electrical conductivity larger than 90% of the International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS), but this type of welding leads to keyhole porosity due to keyhole instabilities. One way of counteracting is the use of a heat conduction welding process. However, due to the Gaussian intensity distribution, it is not possible to supply sufficient energy to eliminate lack-of-fusion porosity and concurrently avoid the formation of a keyhole. Ring-shaped beam profiles have proven their advantages in stabilizing the PBF-LB/M process with a tendency toward higher laser power, but pure copper has not yet been processed in this way. Therefore, this study investigates the potential of three ring-shaped beam profiles to produce specimens with a density of more than 99.5% and their respective electrical conductivity using a laser power of up to 1300 W. In order to understand the underlying welding process, the weld geometry of single-tracks is analyzed. Specimens with a density of up to 99.77% and an electrical conductivity of up to 101.62% IACS are produced, whereby the material properties and welding regime depend on the selected ring-shaped beam profile.