Concept development for the generation of support structures in the laser metal deposition process

Abstract

For most additive manufacturing technologies, complex components require a support structure for thermal dissipation and printability. This paper shows for the laser metal deposition process, how weld spot pillars can be used as a support structure for surfaces with large overhangs produced on a three-axis system. A self-written software is used for generating machine and motion sequences, where layered construction of these structures is not mandatory. In the first step, parameters for generating different build strategies of single pillars were found. In a second step, different concepts of combining pillars are presented and compared.