Additive Manufacturing of Functional Metallic Materials

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become increasingly popular during the recent years, but up to now AM research is mainly focused on structural applications. However, the advantages of AM technologies, as the ability to realise optimized designs with reduced material consumption, apply similarly for functional metallic materials. Additionally, for some materials the specific microstructure formed by an AM method can be beneficial for the functional properties or for further processing steps. Utilizing this advantages, AM could significantly promote getting innovative materials which are difficult to produce or machine into practical application. A brief overview on the status of AM of functional materials will be given and potentials and challenges will be illustrated by the cases of Laser Beam Melting of soft magnetic Fe-Ni-alloys and magnetocaloric La(Fe,Si)13-alloys.