Manufacturing applications – overview
How does additive manufacturing work? The main tool of metal additive manufacturing is a system which contains a laser, a movable metal deposition head and a metal powder nozzle or wire feeder. The metal deposition head, which is suitable for 3-D printing is moved over a building platform while it adds the metal powder or the wire through heating it with the laser beam and melting it on the surface. After cooling down the material the next metal layer can be applied and so it additively generates a three dimensional part in accordance to the construction plan. The technical principle of the additive manufacturing process is basically similar to the cladding process. The difference is that there are no two-dimensional layers but rather three-dimensional forms are created.

The process advantages of diode lasers
The top-hat beam profile of Laserline's diode lasers creates very even molten pools and allows for a calm process control that leads to homogeneous, crack-free material layers. One of the most promising approaches for optimized production processes is the integration of laser beam sources in machine tools for additive manufacturing products.