Femtosecond fiber laser additive manufacturing of tungsten

Additive manufacturing (AM) is promising to produce complex shaped components, including metals and alloys, to meet requirements from different industries such as aerospace, defense and biomedicines. Current laser AM uses CW lasers and very few publications have been reported for using pulsed lasers (esp. ultrafast lasers). In this paper, additive manufacturing of Tungsten materials is investigated by using femtosecond (fs) fiber lasers. Various processing conditions are studied, which leads to desired characteristics in terms of morphology, porosity, hardness, microstructural and mechanical properties of the processed components. Fully dense Tungsten part with refined grain and increased hardness was obtained and compared with parts made with different pulse widths and CW laser. The results are evidenced that the fs laser based AM provides more dimensions to modify mechanical properties with controlled heating, rapid melting and cooling rates compared with a CW or long pulsed laser. This can greatly benefit to the make of complicated structures and materials that could not be achieved before.