Laser engineered net shaping (LENS™): A tool for direct fabrication of metal parts

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Abstract
For many years, Sandia National Laboratories has been involved in the development and application of rapid prototyping and direct fabrication technologies to build prototype parts and patterns for investment casting. Sandia is currently developing a process called Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™) to fabricate fully dense metal parts directly from computer-aided design (CAD) solid models. The process is similar to traditional laser-initiated rapid prototyping technologies such as stereolithography and selective laser sintering in that layer additive techniques are used to fabricate physical parts directly from CAD data. By using the coordinated delivery of metal particles into a focused laser beam, a part is generated. The laser beam creates a molten pool of metal on a substrate into which powder is injected. Concurrently, the substrate on which the deposition is occurring is moved under the beam/powder interaction zone to fabricate the desired cross-sectional geometry. Consecutive layers are additivel...

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