Residual Stresses in CuSn10 Structures: A Macroscopic Investigation of Scan Strategies and Heat Treatments

To address the challenges of stress-induced distortion in additive manufac
turing via laser powder bed fusion of CuSn10, the effects of different scanning
strategies (cross-scan vs. island strategy) and various heat treatments (200C,
300C, 700C) were analyzed regarding their effectiveness in reducing stress,
as well as their impact on microstructure and hardness. The results indicate
that the island strategy leads to higher values compared to the cross-scan
strategy. A stress-relief annealing at 200C for 2 h significantly reduced the
bending strain by 83%, while 300C for 2 h achieved almost complete stress
relief of 96%. However, both treatments affected the material’s strength. A
solution-annealing treatment at 700C reduced distortion by approximately
90%andresulted in a pronounced microstructural evolution accompanied by a
notable decrease in hardness. Overall, this study demonstrates that using
continuous scanning vectors (cross-scan) yields lower stresses for CuSn10.
Furthermore, it shows that thermal post-treatment can effectively reduce
residual stresses, although one must balance this effect against the associated
changes in material properties