Simulation of 316L Stainless Steel Produced the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process

Additive manufacturing is increasingly being used in the production of parts of simple as well as complex shapes designed for various areas of industry. Prevention of errors in the production process is currently enabled using simulation tools that have the function of predicting possible errors and, at the same time, providing a set of information about the behaviour of the material in the metal additive manufacturing process. This paper discusses the simulation processes of 316L stainless steel produced using the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. Simulation of the printing process in the Simufact Additive simulation program made it possible to predict possible deformations and errors that could occur in the process of producing test samples. After analysing the final distortion already with compensation, the simulation values of maximum deviation -0.01 mm and minimum -0.13 mm were achieved.