Gear wheel manufacture via laser additive manufacturing

Laser additive manufacturing (LAM) provides a suitable and promising technology for manufacturing complex parts. This enables innovative product design of gear wheels with regard to resource efficiency, lightweight design, and thermo-mechanical load adaption by functional integration. In order to produce gear wheels with sufficient material properties, an optimized LAM-process together with pre- and post-processes is developed. Using the case-hardening steel 1.7131, resulting material properties and microstructure is evaluated and compared to conventionally manufactured material. As a result, LAM is qualified for 1.7131 and appropriate heat treatment processes for stress relief annealing and case hardening is developed for a reference gear geometry.