Manufacturing of metallic prototypes and tools by laser cutting and diffusion bonding

This paper presents a new rapid metal prototyping technology. The direct production of metallic structures is accomplished by laser cutting of metal sheet and subsequently forming a component by diffusion-welding the sheets. The combination of this two flexible manufacturing techniques with a special computer-aided design process offers excellent means of producing fully functional metallic parts as well as tooling inserts from sheet metal in a short time.