Direct manufacturing of net-shape functional components/test-pieces for aerospace, automotive, and other applications

Laser consolidation (LC) is a novel computer-aided manufacturing process being developed by the Industrial Materials Institute of National Research Council of Canada (NRC-IMI). This rapid manufacturing process produces net-shape functional metallic parts layer-by-layer directly from a computer-aided design (CAD) model by using a laser beam to melt the injected powder and resolidifying it on the substrate or previous layer. As an alternative to the conventional machining process, this novel manufacturing process builds net-shape functional parts or features on an existing part by adding instead of removing materials. In this paper, laser consolidation of various high performance materials (such as Ni-alloys, tool steels, etc.) will be demonstrated to manufacture functional components or test-pieces (such as shell-based mold inserts, impeller, intersected multihexagon tube, goblet shape, etc.) for potential aerospace, automotive, and other applications. In the paper, dimensional accuracy of various laser-consolidated test-pieces will be measured and compared with CAD models. In addition, an example will be given on laser consolidation to build complex cold spray nozzles that are difficult to make otherwise and significantly improve the performance.