Aerospace 3D Printing — 99.5% Print Density Achieved

The Challenge

An aerospace component manufacturer was transitioning from CNC machining to selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing for lightweight structural brackets and heat exchanger components. Their previous powder supplier could not consistently deliver:

• High sphericity (>95%) required for consistent powder spreading
• Low oxygen content (<0.1%) to prevent porosity in printed parts
• Tight particle size distribution centered at 30 µm for their 40 µm layer thickness

The Solution

LSBT supplied Al-Si10Mg alloy powder produced via vacuum gas atomization (VIGA) with tight quality controls:

• D50 = 30 µm (D10: 15 µm, D90: 45 µm) — optimized for 20-50 µm layer thickness
• Sphericity > 96% — measured by dynamic image analysis
• Oxygen content < 0.08% — vacuum inert gas atomization prevents oxidation
• Flowability < 25s/50g — Hall flowmeter tested for reliable recoating
• Reusable powder management — guidance on refresh ratios for cost optimization

The Results

The Al-Si10Mg powder enabled consistent 99.5% relative density in as-printed SLM parts. Post-HIP processing pushed density to 99.9%. The lightweight topology-optimized brackets achieved 40% weight reduction compared to CNC-machined equivalents while maintaining structural integrity.