Abstract
Laser assisted direct metal deposition (or simply DMD) belongs to the family of laser cladding. This is flexible and efficient method for elaboration of diverse coatings including functionally graded, multi-layered, etc. The coatings are characterized by excellent adhesion (metallurgical contact), low porosity and variable thickness up to several millimeters and even centimeters. Actually DMD technology is under intensive development. The most important objective is to increase product quality, process stability and reproducibility along with the simultaneous decrease of risks, failures and defects both on processes and on end-products. The use of the TRUMPF 505 DMD machine with 5 kW CO2 laser allowed to scale-up the technology to an industrial level. The targeted applications are related to petrol, chemical and plastics industries where wear resistance is improved by deposition of a hard-phase coating; in aeronautics DMD is used for near net shape manufacturing from Inconel alloys.
