Fig. 1 Parts produced by LENS (a). Blade (b). H13 Tooling (c). WES Housing
- Parts that are completely dense and have no compositional degradation
- Create mold and die inserts.
- Manufacturing time and cost savings in the production of functional
metal parts.
- Equivalent to or superior to those of mechanical qualities used in
conventional processing
- Manufacturing titanium components for the automotive sector
- Make titanium components for biological implants.
- Develop functional gradient structures
- 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.