## 4 Conclusions  
Simulation of the AM process chain has great applicability in an industrial environment, where the goal is to achieve high quality products, and for this a holistic view of the influence of each step of the chain is required. In this study, a section of the LPBF process chain is modelled and investigated. The simulations are set up in ANSYS Academic Research Mechanical, release 2019 R2, and include the primary process and two post-processes: removal of the part from the base plate and a stress relaxation heat treatment. To analyse the effect of the order of the post-processes, two sequences are proposed: sequence A, in which the part is first heat treated and subsequently removed from the base plate, and sequence B, in which the reverse order of these operations takes place. The model is also probed in terms of two parameters, namely the temperature of the heat treatment and the duration of the same. Additionally, a procedure is proposed to improve the prediction of the primary process by using a corrected deposition temperature. The temperature is calculated by matching the energy input of a molten element layer, with the energy that is absorbed by the powder during the real process. The results lead to the following conclusions. * The model is capable of modelling the entire process in a limited amount of time and using a limited amount of computational resources. This allows a large number of simulations to be run for estimating the effect of varying certain parameters. * The effect of changing the process chain sequence, from first heat treating to first removing from the base plate, leads to an increase of the deformation of the used part. This is most likely due to the stress relaxation, which causes deformation without build-up of stresses when heating up, while causing a build-up of stress and limited deformation when cooling down. * The model also illustrates the capabilities of a generic FE solver to show the effect of the different process chain steps in the additive manufacturing process chain on the part quality. * The model is not capable of capturing the effect of the duration of the heat treatment or the used temperature accurately due to its insensitivity to these parameters. However, when heating below  
Figure 14: The results from the simulation with corrected energy by adjusting the deposition temperature; (**A**) shows the normal stress in the x-direction on the deformed cantilever. The cantilever which underwent sequence A is displayed on the bottom, while the one that followed sequence B is shown on the top; (**B**) displays the normal stress component across the cantilever going from the bottom of the cantilever to the top, for simulation 1 and simulation 11.  
the relaxation temperature a significant difference is observed in sequence B, since the stresses are no longer relaxed when heating up the beam. * The stress relaxation does not decrease the stresses in a cantilever beam significantly but does lead to a homogenisation of this stress. * Correcting the energy input does lead to an improved estimate for the residual stress in the part before post-processing, but since the post-processing changes the stress, the final deflection of a cantilever beam-type part does not differ significantly. Using a general purpose FE software package offers great flexibility in an industrial environment. This research demonstrates the capability of such software to provide reasonably reliable results, without the requirement to purchase typically expensive packages dedicated to the LPBF process. Using this FE solver also presents future opportunities to extend the simulation, covering additional post-process steps, for example milling or polishing, using only a single simulation programme [1]. Conceptualization, D.D.B., M.M., S.M., G.T. and J.H.H. ; methodology, D.D.B. and M.M. ; software, D.D.B. ; formal analysis, D.D.B. ; investigation, D.D.B. and M.M. ; writing--original draft preparation, D.D.B. ; writing--review and editing, D.D.B., M.M., S.M., G.T. and J.H.H. ; visualization, D.D.B.