Applications
Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) of aluminium alloys is already used for various industrial applications. The dominating LAM technology in this field is the powder-based selective laser melting (SLM). However, the range of aluminium alloys available as qualified powder for SLM is very limited and powder handling is in general also laborious. For laser metal deposition (LMD) with wire conventional retrofitted laser welding facilities can be used and the handling of the feedstock material is facilitated. Moreover, a larger range of aluminium alloys is commercially available for this LAM technology in form of filler wires typically used for fusion welding. By using wire instead of powder as feedstock material considerable higher deposition and utilisation rates are possible. Thus, large-scale surface-coatings as well as structures can be realised. By coupling the knowledge about the process, the (new) materials and the microstructure it is possible to tailor the resulting properties of structures.