Metal rapid prototype fabrication using selective laser cladding technology

Non-metallic rapid prototyping has been successfully applied in several industries, but a metal rapid prototype is required for functional prototypes and tooling applications. A metal rapid prototype fabricated using selective laser cladding is presented in this paper. Laser cladding is one type of laser surface treatment process. During this process an alloy is fused onto the surface of a substrate. Laser cladding devices, i.e. powder feeder, CNC workstation table, laser shutter, and shielding gas controller, were integrated to make automatically any cladding profile possible. The metal prototype was then fabricated layer by layer. This is called the selective laser cladding system (SLC). The fabrication of the metal rapid prototype using SLC technology is described and the detailed design and construction of the SLC is presented in this paper.