Laser based direct energy deposition with co-axial wire support and OCT sensor

Not only surface treatment has established itself as a field of application for the Direct Metal Depostion process, direct "printing" or the production of near net shape structures is an essential field of application for metal powder build-up welding. Although the nozzle technology has been continually improved, the powder efficiency is below 100%. It is far away from process boundary conditions to take the decision whether metal powder or wire is the best solution for a specific application. In the recent years the use of wire was not part of the discussion e.g. when talking about a multi-directional welding path or building 3D structures because of the missing tool. The new processing head CoaxPrinter is a promising solution to increase the use of wire in LMD. The compact and easy to use device has shown excellent build up results with repeatable quality and homogenous inner structure of the melted wire, supported by OCT sensor technology.