Solid Freeform Fabrication | Laser Powder Deposition | Rapid Prototyping | Research | UT Space Institute | NIT Trichy | BARC | Essar Steel Limited | Deepak Rajput

Solid Freeform Fabrication

This section is entirely based on our work done at the Center for Laser Applications, The University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), Tullahoma, Tennessee. We invented two techniques (now abandoned) for solid freeform fabrication using laser powder deposition approach:

Tower nozzle solid freeform fabrication technique (published in Rapid Prototyping Journal in 2010), and
Axis-symmetric solid freeform fabrication technique (published in the 2008 World Congress on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials)

There are many different types of solid freeform fabrication (SFF) techniques like three-dimensional printing (3DP), selective laser sintering (SLS) and its variations, electron beam melting, and blown powder laser cladding.

All the techniques will be discussed here in brief. The tower nozzle and axis-symmetric solid freeform fabrication techniques will be discussed in detail.

(download in high resolution)
Schematics of the tower nozzle solid freeform fabrication technique.

(download in high resolution)
Schematics of the axis-symmetric solid freeform fabrication technique.