Practical Issues in the Application of Direct Metal Laser Sintering
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Date
2006
Authors
Jacobson, D. M.
Bennett, G.
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Abstract
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) was introduced to meet the objective of producing metal parts directly from CAD data. CRDM has accumulated six years of experience in applying this technique, mostly to prototyping parts for evaluation. For some applications, such as blow moulds, porosity generated in DMLS has proved to be beneficial, but for others a concession on tolerances or finish are necessary and/or complementary operations are required, which add to manufacturing time and cost. This paper examines such issues through some well chosen examples of parts to demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of the DMLS process.