TY - JOUR

T1 - A comparative study of wire feeding and powder feeding in direct diode laser deposition for rapid prototyping

AU - Syed, W. U. H.

AU - Pinkerton, A. J.

AU - Li, L

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - Metal powder feeding has been used widely in various rapid prototyping and tooling processes such as direct laser deposition (DLD) and layered engineered net shaping (LENS) to achieve near net shape accuracy. Although powder recycling has been practiced, the material usage efficiency has been very low (normally below 30%). This study compares the process characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of wire- and powder-feed DLD. A 1.5 kW diode laser is used to build multiple layer parts, which are compared and analysed in terms of surface finish, microstructure and deposition efficiency. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy are used for the material characterisation. The microstructure of samples from both the methods is similar, with some porosity found in powder-feed components, but the surface finish and material usage efficiency is better for wire-feed samples. The deposition angle is found to be critical in the case of wire feeding and the characteristics of different feed angles are explored. Possible reasons for the different characteristics of the two deposition techniques are discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

AB - Metal powder feeding has been used widely in various rapid prototyping and tooling processes such as direct laser deposition (DLD) and layered engineered net shaping (LENS) to achieve near net shape accuracy. Although powder recycling has been practiced, the material usage efficiency has been very low (normally below 30%). This study compares the process characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of wire- and powder-feed DLD. A 1.5 kW diode laser is used to build multiple layer parts, which are compared and analysed in terms of surface finish, microstructure and deposition efficiency. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy are used for the material characterisation. The microstructure of samples from both the methods is similar, with some porosity found in powder-feed components, but the surface finish and material usage efficiency is better for wire-feed samples. The deposition angle is found to be critical in the case of wire feeding and the characteristics of different feed angles are explored. Possible reasons for the different characteristics of the two deposition techniques are discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

KW - Wire feeding

KW - Powder feeding

KW - Rapid prototyping

KW - Laser deposition

U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2005.01.138

DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2005.01.138

M3 - Journal article

VL - 247

SP - 268

EP - 276

JO - Applied Surface Science

JF - Applied Surface Science

SN - 0169-4332

IS - 1-4

ER -