General Electric Company
CONTROL OF SOLIDIFICATION IN LASER POWDER BED FUSION ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING USING A DIODE LASER FIBER ARRAY

Abstract:

A method of method of forming or repairing a superalloy article having a columnar or equiaxed or directionally solidified or amorphous or single crystal microstructure includes emitting a plurality of laser beams from selected fibers of a diode laser fiber array corresponding to a pattern of a layer of the article onto a powder bed of the superalloy to form a melt pool; and controlling a temperature gradient and a solidification velocity of the melt pool to form the columnar or single crystal microstructure.