COMBINATION OF METAL ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING COMPLEX COMPONENTS OF AERONAUTICAL TURBINES

Abstract

Two of the processes of metallic additive manufacturing that are currently in a strong industrial development are the Selective Laser Melting (SLM), within the additive process category assigned as "Powder Bed Fusion (PBF)" and the Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), as part of "Direct Energy Deposition (DED)" processes. Thus, in this paper the combination of both additive manufacturing techniques (SLM + LMD) is studied, so that, a hybrid method that combines the advantages of both processes is applied. To analyze the applicability of this methodology, the case of a turbine component manufactured by SLM, to which structures have been added later by means of LMD, is presented. On the other hand, the critical areas of the part in which there is a concurrence of problems that force a change in the process have been analyzed. In addition, a technique to prepare the areas where material is going to be supplied by LMD has been applied to reduce the possible thermal damage that is generated during this process. Keywords: SLM, LMD, additive manufacturing, Inconel 718®, aeronautical turbines.