I need suggestions on the best type of support structure to be used for 3D printing Inconel 718 using Island strategy (5 x 5 mm). Will these structures affect the texture of the part produced? It would be great, if anyone could send the matlab file for generating the coordinates of the advanced support structures.
Dear Roshan,
As you may already know, support structures are used for several reasons in additive manufacturing, and in laser powder bed fusion processes (like SLM) example purposes of those structures include anchoring the part and dissipating the heat.
Support structure generation is usually done by support modules of job / CAD preparation software such as Materialise Magics or Autodesk Netfabb. With these software you can generate various types of supports such as point, line, block, web, gusset etc.
However the selection of support structures is mostly influenced by material type. In this regard, you may not be able to use same type structures for aluminum and nickel alloys since thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, yield strength and other properties of these materials are extremely different from each other. Inconel 718 and also other Inconel grades mostly require block supports or even solid (full) supports for sufficient heat dissipation and also strong anchorage. To understand geometrical elements of these structures and to see the effects of the dimensional changes you can check our paper called “Investigation of Support Structures for Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) Of In625 Parts”.
I hope you find the response helpful.
Regards,
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