Improvement of surface properties of SLM parts by atmospheric plasma spraying coating

Although selective laser melting (SLM) provides many advantages compared to conventional forming methods, limited surface quality is one of the major drawbacks restricting its application. As a remedy, the ceramic coating was deposited on the SLM parts surface in order to improve surface quality in this study. Furthermore, the combination of SLM and APS makes a great possibility to obtain special function material for special application. In this work, the bonding condition between ceramic coating and stainless steel parts were observed by optical microscope and SEM. The surface morphology and roughness were measured by a 3D-profilemeter. The microhardness and bonding strength of the ceramic coating were also measured. This paper presents two types of bonding mechanisms between ceramic coating and SLM parts with horizontal/vertical surface. It can be found that the bonding strength of the coating on the vertical surface was approximately 40 MPa, but the bonding strength of coating on the horizontal surface is relatively weaker.