Combined laser additive manufacturing with powderbed and powder nozzle for turbine parts

Metal additive manufacturing is often based on laser beam processes like Laser Metal Fusion (LMF) or Laser Metal Deposition (LMD). The LMF process is in particular suitable for very complex geometries. However build rate, part volume and material flexibility are limited in LMF. In contrast, LMD achieves higher deposition rates, less restricted part sizes and the possibility to change the material composition during the build-up process. On the other hand, due to the lower spatial precision of the material deposition process, the complexity of geometries is limited. Therefore, combined manufacturing with both LMF and LMD has the potential to utilize the respective advantages of both technologies. In this paper, combined additive manufacturing with LMF and LMD is described for Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718. First, lattice structures with different wall thickness and void sizes are built with LMF. The influence of LMD material deposition on these LMF-structures is examined regarding metallurgical impact and distortion. Cross-sections, x-ray computer tomography and 3D-scanning results are shown. For the titanium alloy specimen, oxygen and Nitrogen content in the deposited material are analysed to evaluate the LMD shielding gas atmosphere. The results are used to develop guidelines for a LMD build-up strategy on LMF substrates. With these findings, a gas turbine burner is manufactured as reality test for the combined approach.