Enhanced manufacturing possibilities using multi-materials in laser metal deposition

Additive manufacturing (AM) addresses various benefits as the buildup of complex shaped parts, the possibility of functional integration, reduced lead times or the use of difficult machinable materials compared to conventional manufacturing possibilities. Beside these advantages, the use of more than one material in a component would strongly increase the field of applications in typical AM branches as energy, aerospace, or medical technology. By means of multi-material buildups, cost-intensive alloys could be only used in high-loaded areas of the part, whereas the remaining part could be fabricated with cheaper compositions. The selection of combined materials strongly depends on the requested thermophysical but also mechanical properties. Within this contribution, examples (e.g., used in the turbine business) show how alloys can be arranged to fit together, e.g., in terms of a well-chosen coefficient of thermal expansion. As can be seen in nature, the multi-material usage can be characterized by sharp intersections from one material to the other (e.g., in case of a thin corrosion protection), but also by graded structures enabling a smoother material transition (e.g., in case of dissimilar materials which are joined together without defects). The latter is shown for an example from aerospace within this paper. Another possibility is the simultaneous placement of several materials, e.g., hard carbide particles placed in a more ductile matrix composition. These particles can be varied in size (e.g., TiC versus WC). Also the ratio between carbides and matrix alloy can be adjusted depending on its application. Especially, nozzle-based free form fabrication technologies, e.g., laser metal deposition, enable the utilization of more than one material. Within this contribution, possibilities to feed more than one filler material are demonstrated. In addition, results of multi-material processes are shown. Finally, this work focuses on different (potential) applications, mainly on power generation, but also for medical technology or wear resistant components.