Metal Additive Manufacturing Conference 2018

Nowadays powder bed processes such as laser or electron beam melting have been successfully introduced in various applications. Nevertheless there are many components or material concepts which cannot be realized by using these techniques. In this work a plasma transferred arc system is used as a heat source in combination with feeding of powder for the manufacturing of 3D parts. This method allows the combination of materials, e.g. to realize multi-materials or manufacture composite materials. The process will be described in detail and examples of different materials such as Titanium alloys, Iron based alloys as well as Nickel based alloys will be presented. Using two powder feeders multi-material components and gradient structures can be realized. Material properties, application areas as well as the potential of the technology for will be presented.