Abstract
Most mechanical components are usually made of a single material, as a compromise between chemical, physical and functional properties. When designing an object, the choice of one material over another is driven by many reasons. Sometimes these reasons are not strictly technical, including for instance: biocompatibility, density, weldability, corrosion resistance, price, and appearance. Direct Laser Deposition (DLD) technology is an additive manufacturing process that allows the construction of objects by depositing material layer by layer. With DLD, the metal powder comes out of a nozzle conveyed by a flow of inert gas and is melted by a laser beam. One of the advantages of this technology over other AM technologies (such as SLM) is that it is possible to vary the composition of the deposited material by simply changing the metal powder. It is clear that with DLD technology, the properties of different metallic materials deposited together in a single object can be exploited. With this work the authors present two real-life case studies, in which the DLD technology is used to build multi-material components. Thefirst case concerns a gearbox component made of C40 steel that must work in a food environment and has therefore been completely covered with a layer of stainless steel. The second case is a flange that must have a weldable base, while the internal hole must be made of a high-performance tool-steel.
Highlights
Each material has specific characteristics that make it more or less suitable for certain purposes
During the design of mechanical components, it often happens that the required specifications can only be partially met by a single material
Authors have designed the component starting from a laser-cut C40 steel base used as a substrate. On this base is deposited the bushing made of Ferro55, which is an equivalent to ASTM H13 tool steel and the gussets made in 316L stainless steel
Summary
Each material has specific characteristics that make it more or less suitable for certain purposes. With the advent of the Direct Laser Deposition (DLD) technique, a new way of integrating different materials into a single component is opened up [1,2,3]. In recent years this technology has been integrated into 5-axis CNC machines — e.g. DMG MORI Lasertec 65 3D [4] — creating hybrid machines that allow both the addition and removal of material. The main physical parameters that can be manipulated on the machine are: the powder flow rate, the nozzle speed and the laser power Other parameters such as the stepover, path-overhang and deposition-width can be set using CAM.
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