Aluminum (Al) - based powders have attracted attention as key materials for 3D printing because of their excellent specific mechanical strength, formability, and durability. Although many studies on the fabrication of 3Dprinted Al-based alloys have been reported, the influence of the size of raw powder materials on the bulk samples processed by selective laser melting (SLM) has not been fully investigated. In this study, AlSi10Mg powders of 65 μm in average particle size, prepared by a gas atomizing process, are additively manufactured by using an SLM process. AlSi10Mg powders of 45 μm average size are also fabricated into bulk samples in order to compare their properties. The processing parameters of laser power and scan speed are optimized to achieve densified AlSi10Mg alloys. The Vickers hardness value of the bulk sample prepared from 45 μm-sized powders is somewhat higher than that of the 65 μm-sized powder. Such differences in hardness are analyzed because the reduction in melt pool size stems from the rapid melting and solidification of small powders, compared to those of coarse powders, during the SLM process. These results show that the size of the powder should be considered in order to achieve optimization of the SLM process.

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In this study, the effects of powder size and composition on the reflectance of Al-Si based alloys are presented. First, the reflectance of Al-Si bulk and powder are analyzed to confirm the effect of powder size. Results show that the bulk has a higher reflectance than that of powder because the bulk has lower surface defects. In addition, the larger the particle size, the higher is the reflectance because the interparticle space decreases. Second, the effect of composition on the reflectance by the changing composition of Al-Si-Mg is confirmed. Consequently, the reflectance of the alloy decreases with the addition of Si and Mg because dendrite Si and Mg2Si are formed, and these have lower reflectance than pure Al. Finally, the reflectance of the alloy is due to the scattering of free electrons, which is closely related to electrical conductivity. Measurements of the electrical conductivity based on the composition of the Al-Si-Mg alloy confirm the same tendency as the reflectance.