Parts produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion typically exhibit a limited surface quality often requiring
systematic post-processing. The KU Leuven AM team recently developed a Dual Laser Powder Bed Fusion
strategy to improve the quality of inclined up-facing surfaces during building. It consists of two steps: (1) a pulsed
laser induces shock waves to remove powder from inclined surfaces, followed by (2) in-situ laser remelting of
the newly exposed surfaces. The first part of this paper covers the powder removal efficiency using shock waves
depending on the used material. A design of experiments was performed for horizontal samples of tool steels,
titanium and aluminium alloys. The second part deals with the effect of the initial surface state on the powder
removal efficiency for inclined surfaces (SaR,LT60=16.2 µm, SaR,LT120=24.0 µm). Finally, the third part
demonstrates the surface quality improvement, resulting in a reduction of Ra up to 61% for 15° inclinations.Mechanical Engineerin
