Fig. 1 Parts produced by LENS (a). Blade (b). H13 Tooling (c). WES Housing
  1. Parts that are completely dense and have no compositional degradation
  2. Create mold and die inserts.
  3. Manufacturing time and cost savings in the production of functional metal parts.
  4. Equivalent to or superior to those of mechanical qualities used in conventional processing
  5. Manufacturing titanium components for the automotive sector
  6. Make titanium components for biological implants.
  7. Develop functional gradient structures
  8. Environmental compatibility is achieved through the controlled containment of expensive and hazardous materials during processing under inert conditions.
LENS Process
An STL file is used to feed a three-dimensional CAD model into the laser equipment (slicing of the designed model into layers). The laser system decodes the sliced image. Both CO2 and Nd:YAG (Neodymium Yttrium-Aluminum Garnet) laser sources can be used with the laser system. A delivery head of the laser system is coupled to powder feeding systems, and an inert gas acts as the material powders’ carrier gas as it travels from the feeding system to the work area. A lens that focuses the laser beam to a focal point to produce a molten pool is part of the delivery head. When the powder is deposited co-axially with the laser beam into the molten pool, it melts and fuses, forming a layer along the direction of deposition. Fig. 1 depicts this process. An extremely thin cross section of the geometry is deposited after the substrate is shifted beneath the laser beam. A layer is first deposited, and then another is added by moving the powder delivery nozzle and focusing lens assembly in the Z-direction. Until the component is finished, this procedure was repeated. A unique powder delivery nozzle and powder feeder have been created in order to guarantee uniform deposition and enhance overall part quality.