Home / Good News for Transportation, Aerospace: DED Developed for Aluminum 3D Printing

Good News for Transportation, Aerospace: DED Developed for Aluminum 3D Printing

Optomec’s LENS Directed Energy Deposition systems feature advanced capabilities for use in additive manufacturing and repairing aluminum alloys. Its process parameters for aluminum alloys now provide excellent surface finish, high deposition rates and a density of ~99.9%, says applications engineer.

Posted: May 12, 2020

Optomec's LENS DED can be used to deposit any aluminum alloy. In this photo, it is printing aluminum powder onto an aluminum substrate.

Left: Aluminum alloy block deposited with LENS DED – note the very smooth surface finish. Right: Optical micrograph of polished and unetched sample from the same block – note the low fraction of gas porosity (circles) measured at ~0.1% using image analysis with gray scale thresholding.

Optomec (Albuquerque, NM) has expanded the capability of its LENS Directed Energy Deposition (DED) systems for applications in additive manufacturing (AM) and the repair of aluminum alloys. This innovation can be used to deposit any aluminum alloy, including those recently developed specifically for improved properties with AM processing.

The advancement of the Optomec DED process open the door for the transportation and aerospace industries to AM and repair of complex aluminum alloy parts using powder-based DED.

Additionally, the use of Optomec’s LENS simultaneous 5-axis system means users can process aluminum alloy parts with complex geometries without the need for support structures. Deposition of aluminum alloys in a controlled atmosphere glove-box with very low levels of oxygen and moisture achieves components with superior mechanical properties.

“Our engineers have developed process parameters for aluminum alloys to provide an excellent surface finish, high deposition rates and a density of ~99.9%,” says LENS Applications Engineer David Otazu.

Optomec LENS systems can now successfully process all common materials used for AM including steels, titanium, nickel, copper, and now, aluminum.”

www. optomec.com

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