Novel hybrid gas and ultrasonic powder delivery system for laser cladding and additive manufacturing

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Additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to replace many conventional manufacturing processes. Laser cladding (LC) is an AM technique for creating large engineering parts by repeatedly adding and fusing thin layers of materials to a surface. Complex 3D shapes and near shape parts can be achieved with low component distortion and minimum heat input. InLC, the supply of the additive material in one of the key factors controlling the process. The most advantageous and widely used method is powder injection. Current LC techniques are based on the gas delivery of metallic powders to the laser generated melt pool. A major drawback of this is that wastage of the expensive powder is high with efficiencies as low as30 to 70%. This is a key barrier to the wider adoption of AM to a broader range of applications. The business opportunity for Advanced Laser Technology (ALT) is to develop a novel hybrid gas and ultrasonic powder delivery system for LC. There are clear benefits including 100% powder efficiency, increased system reliability and a cleaner and safer workenvironment.