With the improvement of the performance and the complexity of the structure of metal parts, the difficulty, cost and cycle of the traditional manufacturing process such as casting and forging are increasing rapidly. Laser additive manufacturing technology with both advanced technology and resource economy provides a new solution to this problem.

Laser gain technology complex structures have to meet the manufacturing metal parts, near net forming of high precision, good performance characteristics, can change the mode of traditional metal parts processing, is the current manufacturing complex precision metal components, one of the most promising application technology and support areas such as aviation, aerospace, medical one of the key basic technology of intelligent manufacturing.

Based on the long-term observation of the market and the extensive practice of metal additive manufacturing, LiM laser process research and development team recently adjusted the laser power, spot size, scanning strategy, scanning speed and other process parameters of self-developed equipment LiM-X260A, after several iterations of research and experiment optimization. The aluminum alloy with large area (150mm*150mm) limit size structure is successfully printed. The overall structure of the formed parts is intact, the thickness is uniform, the rod diameter is 0.2mm, and the rod diameter dimension accuracy is ±0.025mm.

Cellular structure model

Print model

This part has the characteristics of small rod diameter, low strength and fragile. The structure of the cross cell determines the growth direction of 45°, which leads to easy nodulation at the dot matrix node and great difficulty in forming. The previous process can only meet the forming condition of the minimum rod diameter of 0.4mm. LiM laser technicians successfully achieved stable production on self-developed equipment LiM-X260A by optimizing forming process and breaking through technical difficulties, and customers were highly satisfied with the finished parts.

Enlarge local rod diameter map by 50x

This marks a greater possibility of deep integration of LiM laser equipment and research and development field, LiM laser equipment and technology has once again entered a new height.

LiM-X260 series is a customizable laser selective melting equipment introduced by LiM laser after several product iterations and verification. The forming size is 260mm✖️260mm✖️430mm, and the maximum forming efficiency of single laser is 30cm³/h. The maximum forming efficiency of double laser is 45cm³/h.

LiM - X260 equipment

The self-developed LiMPCS equipment control software, through the industrial computer control, to realize the automation of equipment printing, the use of special motion control system and imported servo driver, greatly improve the precision and stability of the forming system and the powder system movement. Can carry out a variety of alloy material printing research, such as titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, high temperature alloy, cobalt chromium alloy, copper alloy, etc.

LiM Laser will continue to practice and optimize, continue to explore the limit size forming process scheme and process parameters, in LiM-X400 series, LiM-X600 series, LiM-X800 series and other large equipment to achieve titanium alloy, superalloy and other different materials limit size structure parts printing, to provide customers with the best parts process scheme. We will continue to give full play to the technological advantages of metal additive manufacturing to provide more possibilities for manufacturing and create "extreme possibilities".