Development of new strategies for improving precision and mechanical performance of metal parts produced by laser powder bed fusion

At present, surface quality of metals parts produced by laser powder bed fusion is often limited and hence time- and cost-expensive post-processing is required in many cases. This limits the breakthrough of Additive Manufacturing for a variety of applications. This PhD research aims to address this by developing new strategies for improved precision of metal parts produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). On the one hand, in-depth process insights will be gained to explore optimisation of current process strategies and process parameters for improving part precision while maintaining high density and mechanical performance. On the other hand, new process concepts will be studied and developed to improve metal AM part surface characteristics while printing in a layer-by-layer manner. Those new process concepts might include but are not limited to the exploration of different laser types (e.g. continuous wave and pulsed wave lasers), dynamic beam shaping, new scanning strategies, and new control strategies.