Direct laser fabrication of nickel alloy samples

Direct laser fabrication (DLF) is an advanced manufacturing technology which can build full density metal components directly from CAD files without using any modules or tools. An open-loop controlled hardware system and associated control software for the DLF process of nickel alloy samples was constructed in our work. The hardware system is consisted of a CO2 laser, a 4-axis CNC table, a coaxial powder nozzle and a powder recycler. In order to achieve the maximum flexibility and extensibility for the fabrication of metal parts, path plug-ins was introduced into the control software. The effect of the specific energy on the cross-section shape of nickel alloy cladding was studied by a single-track cladding experiment with different laser processing parameters. The comprehensive effect of the optimized laser processing parameters was also studied by an orthogonal experiment. The experimental results showed that the specific energy for laser processing is the most important factor, which controls the component qualities. There is an appropriate range for the specific energy in which the nickel alloy samples can be fabricated layer by layer with a uniform height. If the specific energy is too low, the inner height of a sample is lower than its contour height. Banding structure can be observed in the microstructure of nickel alloy samples. The gain size in the light zones of the bandings is much smaller than those in the dark zones.