Wire-Fed Additive Manufacturing of Transparent Glass Parts

Abstract

This paper presents a new technique for additive manufacturing of transparent glass. In this process, transparent glass is wire-fed into a laser generated melt pool, which solidifies as the work piece is moved relative to a stationary laser beam. The key parameters are identified in terms of their effects on the morphology and transparency of printed walls. The relationship between these parameters is studied experimentally. It is demonstrated that the process parameters strongly affect the morphology and proper selection of the scan speed, feed rate and laser power can produce optimum results. A key advantage of this process relative to powder bed techniques is the ability to form optically transparent parts. The process parameters also determine the transmissivity of the final sample. The transmissivity is measured experimentally for builds with different process parameters.