Forming of pure copper rod by LMD method with blue diode lasers

Abstract

A multi-beam type laser metal deposition (LMD) system equipped with two blue diode lasers (B-LMD) was developed to form a three-dimensional object production of a pure copper rod. Beams output from the two blue diode lasers are combined at the focal point, and pure copper powder is supplied there, the processing head is moved in the vertical direction to continuously melt and solidify the pure copper. A 100 mm long pure copper rod was formed in 25 seconds with multibeam LMD system using two 100 W-class blue diode lasers. The long side of the formed pure copper rod was 780 μm and the short side was 600 μm, which was larger than the spot at the focal point. Observation with a high-speed video camera showed that the pure copper rod was formed with a thin molten layer at a position 300 µm away from the focal point ( Z = 300 μm). When the laser profile at Z = 300 μm and the cross section of the pure copper rod were overlapped, the size of the pure copper rod coincided with the laser irradiation.