Introduction to Laser Metal Deposition Process

Abstract

Additive manufacturing process is an advanced manufacturing process that fabricates components through the addition of materials as against the labour and energy intensive manufacturing processes which are based on material removal, or on application of heat and pressure. Laser metal deposition process belongs to a class of additive manufacturing process that can be used to fabricate three dimensional (3D) computer aided design model of the part by adding materials in a layer wise manner. Apart from the fabrication of 3D objects, laser metal deposition process can also be used to repair broken down parts and for the fabrication of parts that are made of composite and functionally graded materials. This important additive manufacturing technology is comprehensively dealt with in this book. This chapter briefly introduced the additive manufacturing (AM) process, the various classes of the AM technologies, laser metal deposition process, and the advantages as well as the limitation of these technologies.