A sensing integrated metal additive manufacturing platform for exploring the use of non-standard powders

Research applications that rely on commercial directed energy deposition (DED) based metal additive manufacturing systems are commonly constrained by their inflexibility in handling various non-standard powders, lack of fine system control and inherent difficulty with sensor integration. In this work, we present the design of a sensing-integrated platform for metal additive manufacturing. A modular design allows easy modification of specific sub-systems, such as laser integration or powder delivery mechanisms, to enable capabilities that are difficult to realize with commercial systems. As an example, we demonstrate DED performance using non-conventional inexpensive powders produced via abrasion and water atomization techniques. System performance is evaluated using integrated sensors and complemented by numerical/ analytical calculations. Based on these results, a nominal operation map combining thermal field with powder flow is generated for determining process parameters suitable for a given material/build combination and can be generally applicable for any DED AM system. In addition to handling non-spherical and alternatively sourced powders, the system capabilities for printing multi-material complex contours are demonstrated.