|
CRP year |
2012 |
|
Budget |
£63k |
|
Project Reference No. |
21711 |
|
Technical Lead |
Riccardo Tosi |
|
AM process & materials used |
Laser blown powder directed energy deposition |
Directed energy deposition (DED) is an additive manufacturing process that uses a focused energy source, such as a plasma arc, laser or electron beam to melt a material which is simultaneously deposited by a nozzle. This approach can be used to make parts from scratch, but more commonly is used to repair worn or damaged parts, or add features or coatings to parts.
A prototype laser blown powder DED system was developed on a collaborative project in 2009-2012 led by MTC entitled “RECLAIM” (Technology Strategy Board project ref: TP11/HVM/6/I/AB194F) which made use of a deposition head that could be retrofitted into a CNC machine tool.
This CRP project followed on from this work and focussed on integrating a new laser cladding unit into the existing RECLAIM machine. The cladding system was completely redesigned to improve a more rigid and compact design, and was then used to produce samples and generate videos to support demonstration of the process to industry, such as that in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Example component repair using the RECLAIM machine
If you are a member you can access the deliverables of this project here.
