A Presentation Report on

Additive Manufacturing Using Laser

Under the Esteemed Guidance of

Prof. Chandrashaker

Presented by
G. Karthikeya Sarma
2018JID1463
Additive Manufacturing:
Additive manufacturing has nowadays emerged as an environmentally friendly green
manufacturing technology.​​ ​It has great benefits such as energy saving , less material
consumption and efficient production.​​ ​These benefits are attributed to successive material
deposition at designated target areas by delivering energy on that area.​​ ​In this regard, Lasers are
the most effective form of energy source since the laser beam can transfer a large amount of
energy into micro-scale focal region instantaneously to solidify or cure materials in air, therefore
enabling high-precision and high-throughput manufacturing for a wide range of materials.

Lasers Used in Additive Manufacturing:

CO​2 L
​ aser (9-11µm)​-
Generally used wavelength is 10.6 µm (IR region of the spectrum). They have High
Efficiency(5-20%), high output power(0.1-20kW). Due to this, they are extensively used in
material processing.​​ An electrically pumped gas discharge tube is installed between two
reflectors, a high reflectivity mirror at one end, and a partially reflecting mirror (so-called output
coupler) at the other end. A heat dissipation device such as a water jacket to cool the
electrodes would be included for high power operation over several kilowatts in addition. The
simplicity of the system brings a low cost,highly reliability, and system compactness, which are
the main reasons that CO2 lasers are the workhorse of precision manufacturing

Nd-YAG Solid State Laser(1064nm)-

Neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet laser has it’s ​wavelength in the near IR region. Can
be operated both in continuous mode and also pulsed mode with the output going to 20kW. Use
for research purposes for parametric studies and optimizing machining parameters. Nd:YAG
lasers with a central wavelength of 1064 nm, and are primarily used in StereoLithography(SLA)
as a source of UV light by third harmonic generation (355 nm) to selectively cure photopolymer
resins.
​

Yb-doped fiber Laser(1030-1070nm)-

Very high quantum efficiency(94%). Due to this reason, it is used for high power generation.
Due to fiber based gain medium, the electrical to optical efficiency high(25%).​​ This high
efficiency is the very reason why Yb-fiber laser are widely used in material processing and
have mostly replaced Nd:YAG lasers in additive manufacturing.

Critical Laser Parameters in Additive

Manufacturing:

1. Operating Wavelength-
It is the most important parameter of laser which needs to be considered while performing
additive manufacturing. ​Different materials interact with different wavelengths of light. ​In AM,
High Absorptivity is desired because, the target material should interact efficiently with Laser, to
lead to high manufacturing throughput.

2. Pulse Duration-
Lasers can be operated in 2 modes: 1. Continuous mode and 2. Pulsed mode​​. ​In Continuous
mode, the output power is independent of time whereas in pulsed mode, lasers emit power only
in short pulse duration in repetition.​​ ​So, in pulsed mode of laser operation, a very high peak
power of order of 100's of MW can be achieved for a short duration of order (ns to ms). Most
target materials melt at this high peak power within millisecond of exposure.​​ ​The high peak
power increases the temperature of the target material within milliseconds, which doesn't allow
the time to dissipate the thermal energy to the surroundings. This allows us to reach the threshold
energy easier.​​ ​So, the duration of pulse must be selected according to our application and the
melting threshold energy of our target material. ​In general, for laser pulse durations from
continuous wave to tens of picoseconds, the light-material interaction can be explained
through the heat diffusion and the threshold of light energy for manufacturing follows the
square root of the laser pulse duration.

3. Beam Quality and Focused Spot Size-

These are the Spatial domain parameters on which manufacturing precision depends. ​ ​To define
beam quality, a factor called Beam Parameter Product(BPP) is defined as the product of beam
radius(waist size(w0)) and half angle of beam divergence (measured at far field).​​ ​Low BPP
means high energy confinement, so BPP is closely related to power density which affects the
manufacturing resolution.​​ ​The lower limit of BPP is λ/π is defined as the diffraction limit.
Ideally, the minimum BPP can be obtained when the beam is perfect Gaussian.​​ ​The M^2 factor
can also be used to represent the Beam Quality which is equal to BPP/(λ/π) . This would be
equal to 1 if the beam is perfect Gaussian. ​ ​The beam quality also depends on gain medium,
pumping source, resonator cavity.​​

 
Additive Manufacturing Processes​:
1. StereoLithography(SLA)-
SLA developed by 3D systems Inc, was the 1st rapid prototyping techniques developed and is
the most widely used process.​​ ​SLA uses
the selective photo-polymerization by
focusing a UV laser light onto a photo
sensitive polymer resin. ​The basic
principle of this process is the
photopolymerization, which is the
process where a liquid monomer or a
polymer converts into a solidified
polymer by applying ultraviolet light
which acts as a catalyst for the reactions;
this process is also called ultraviolet
curing.​​ ​For curing of photosensitive
resins, critical laser exposure (Ec) has to
be above a certain threshold value. For
some of the classical resins, these values
fall between 4.3 and 7.6 mJ/cm^2​​. ​This
process is widely used in manufacturing MEMS based devices, because, thickness of µm range
can be easily machined using this process​​.​

2. Selective Laser Sintering-

It is an additive manufacturing process that allows the building of complex parts and
structures through the solidification of multiple layers of powders on stacked top. ​ ​A high power
laser is used and this
provides the thermal
energy required for
powder sintering.​​ ​The
sintering between the
powder particles occurs
when the temperature is
raised above the melting
point of the metal or the
softening point of
polymers.​​ ​CO2 lasers with
a few tens to hundreds of
Watts average power are
generally used in SLS
machines because
polymers have a high absorptivity at the operating wavelength. They can also be used for the
sintering of oxide ceramics and composite.​​ ​Laser sintering of metal powders, however,
requires Nd:YAG lasers or more commonly Yb-fiber lasers, which generate a laser beam with
1064 nm wavelength, which is closer to the high absorptivity range for metal powders.​​

3. Selective Laser Melting-

Instead of sintering like in SLS, In SLM the target material is metled completely using Laser
source.​​ ​The materials used in SLS can
include various polymers and metals
whereas in SLM, the materials which
can be used for SLM are certain metals
like Stainless Steel, Tool Steel, Ti,
Co-Cr and Al parts.​​ ​SLM involves
complete melting which results in
improved mechanical and
microstructural properties but suffer
from instability when the metal is
transformed from solid to liquid.(In
comparison to SLS).​​
4. Laser Engineered Net Shaping-
It is also called as Laser Based Metal Deposition(LBMD) or Direct Metal Deposition(DMD).​​ ​In
this process, a part is built by melting metal powder that is injected into a specific location. It
becomes molten with the use of a high-powered laser beam. ​The material solidifies when it is
cooled down. The process occurs in a closed chamber with an argon atmosphere.​​ ​The print
materials are dispensed into the molten pool through the nozzles in either powder or wire form at
a controlled rate where the high power laser beam is focused onto.​​ ​This process can be used in
repair of parts whose repairs are otherwise costly and difficult.​​ ​One problem in this process could
be the residual stresses by uneven heating and cooling processes that can be significant in high
precision processes like turbine blades repair.

References:

● Lasers in Additive Manufacturing: A Review -Hyub Lee, Chin Huat Joel Lim, Mun Ji Low, Nicholas
Tham, Vadakke Matham Murukeshan, and Young-Jin Kim​​
● A Review of Additive Manufacturing Kaufui V. Wong and Aldo Hernandez​​
● Images:​​
● https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Basic-principle-of-selective-laser-melting-Custompartnet-201
2_fig5_275533064​​
● http://ss.whiteclouds.com/3dpedia-index/stereolithography​​
● http://www.rpm-innovations.com/index.php?page=news-article&id=5​​
● https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Selective-Laser-Sintering-SLS-Source-entopmaxtechnet_fig12
_307574898​​