Mathematical modelling for energy beam additive manufacturing

A normalized processing diagram for powder bed additive manufacturing by concentrated energy beams was constructed on the base of simple analytical model simulating the heating of the powder layers by a moving linear heat source. The distance of the processing regime points below the line of the dependency of the maximal dimensionless temperature (or of the maximal thermal efficiency) on the dimensionless beam velocity gives insight on the processing parameters range and on the possibility for prognosticated optimization of the utilized parameters of the energy beam at selective powder layer melting. The diagram provides useful reference and methodology to aid the selection of appropriate processing parameters during the early development stages of this perspective technology.