ProFocus six-laser DED titanium components with m4p’s Ti-6Al-4V powder
Oscar-PLT GmbH, Klipphausen, Germany, and m4p material solutions GmbH, Magdeburg, have published the results of a joint project on the production of Ti-6Al-4V via Oscar’s ProFocus Directed Energy Deposition (DED) Additive Manufacturing machine.
The ProFocus machine uses six individually controllable lasers arranged around a centrally guided metal feedstock of either powder or wire. This allows users to carefully control the energy input and distribute heat homogeneously, a characteristic which, according to Oscar, allows the use of materials that were previously unable to be processed. As the machine has a shielding gas flow, it doesn’t need to be used in an enclosed space.
At the recent additivefertigung: metal in bestForm conference, Oscar-PLT’s Dr-Ing Michael Schnick and m4p material solutions’ Dr-Ing Burghardt Klöden presented their work in the project. Dr Schnick focused on the technology used in the ProFocus and wire processes, whilst in his presentation, Dr Klöden discussed the properties achievable when manufacturing with a titanium alloy powder (m4p Ti grade 23.09).
According to Klöden, the mechanical properties of the resultant components were in a range previously exclusive to titanium alloys processed via Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) Additive Manufacturing. This was said to confirm the compatibility of the ProFocus DED Additive Manufacturing technology with m4p’s Ti-6Al-4V powder for the successful processing of this demanding material.
