Laser-aided Directed Metal Deposition of Ni-based superalloy powder

A 2-factor, 2-level experimental plan is drawn to discuss the main effects of the processing variables laser power and processing speed. Namely, the resulting trends are given and compared with similar findings in the literature. Interestingly, dilution as a measure of metal affection is found to be lower than 25%, hence the operating window is deemed to be suitable for both repairing and fabrication of parts. Eventually, repairing by means of side overlapping and multi-level deposition traces on artificial square-shaped grooves is performed: indeed, similar slots are made before DMD to preliminarily remove any local imperfection upon improper casting of the part in the actual industrial process. Although a number of micropores are found, the process is deemed to comply with usual referred standards; in particular, a proper processing window has been found to prevent the occurrence of hot cracking which usually affects the compliance to stress.