Additive manufacturing of alumina using laser engineered net shaping: Effects of deposition variables

Alumina ceramic has been classified as one of difficult-to-manufacturing materials, the traditional manufacturing methods led to high cost and high energy consumption. In comparison to traditional manufacturing methods, laser engineered net shaping (LENS) additive manufacturing (AM) has many good properties to overcome the drawbacks of traditional manufacturing methods. However, the reported investigations on LENS provide limited information for qualities of deposition. In this paper, effects of LENS input deposition variables (laser power, deposition head scanning speed, and powder feeding rate) on deposition quality (such as layer geometry, surface roughness, flatness, powder efficiency, and microhardness) were studied. The obtained results will help to establish an efficient and effective process for ceramics part manufacturing.