Abstract
Direct fabrication technology, which utilizes computer-aided design solid models to automatically control the manufacture of functional piece parts, is rapidly gaining popularity as a means to significantly reduce the time to market of new concepts. Since the introduction of stereolithography in 1982, several different rapid prototyping technologies have evolved using surrogate rather than actual materials of construction. Most recently, researchers have begun to develop laser-based methods to obtain fully dense metallic components directly from a computer-aided design solid model. Each of these methods is unique, but possesses aspects that are similar to the others. Many of these methods hold a great deal of promise for applications; however, none have been developed into a commercial product.
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Additional information
D.M. Keicher earned his M.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1994. He is currently vice president of direct metal deposition at Optomec Design Company.
J.E. Smugeresky earned his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. He is currently a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Smugeresky is also a member of TMS.
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Keicher, D.M., Smugeresky, J.E. The laser forming of metallic components using particulate materials. JOM 49, 51–54 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02914686
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02914686