Development of a centrifugal laser powder bed fusion system for additive manufacturing

Due to the limited production rates of AM technologies, like PBF-L, the market and investment hype of AM has come to the slope of enlightenment, moving towards the plateau of productivity.
To further increase the diversity of AM machine designs and to solve limitations of conventional PBF-L the researchers of Fraunhofer IPT have rethought the kinematics of PBF-L machines. Inspired by centrifugal casting the metal powder is held on a circular track with high angular velocities causing a centrifugal acceleration of the particles in the powder bed, that overcomes gravitation. The laser optics is centered in the rotational axis melting the high velocity particles.
Process limitations are caused by the tradeoff between stabilized powder distribution and limited scanning speed. To increase processability and allow scalability the independent rotation of laser beam and powder bed were installed. This paper shows the development of a first prototype and initial process trials.