System for powder bed based metal fusion by means of laser beam

• Subject Area: Materials Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 555100690

The subject of this application is a laboratory system for powder bed-based laser beam melting of metals (Powder Bed Fusion of Metals using a Laser Beam, PBF-LB/M). The overall objective is to establish the technical conditions for the production of samples from metal powder using PBF-LB/M under variable process boundary conditions and with individual plant equipment to address fundamental questions of materials technology and materials science. The PBF-LB/M system applied for here is a state-of-the-art production system that can be integrated into the existing additive manufacturing (AM) process chain and thus enables a holistic view of the AM process chain. In addition to a powerful fibre laser, the system has an optimized shielding gas flow within the process chamber, which ensures the production of low-defect samples and high reproducibility. In addition, the proposed system offers a wide range of options for directly influencing the production process and thus for analyzing the relationships between the process and the material-side microstructure formation processes. In this context, the variation possibilities of the laser beam, the laser power and the laser beam profile as well as the use of a building platform preheating to temperatures of up to 500 °C are particularly noteworthy. With the help of these variation options, a deeper understanding of the complex laser-material-atmosphere interactions and the dependent microstructure formation processes in the material should be possible in the future.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Anlage zum pulverbettbasierten Metall-schmelzen mittels Laserstrahl
• Instrumentation Group: 5740 Laser in der Fertigung
• Applicant Institution: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Weber