Alternative beam sources and machine concepts for laser powder bed fusion

Laser powder bed fusion (l-PBF) has drawn increasing attention as an additive manufacturing technique for industrial production over the last years. However, the existing machine technology constitutes certain limitations in terms of the process itself as well as scalability of melting rate and build envelope. In this paper, new approaches for l-PBF with regard to exposure- and machine concepts as well as beam sources and optical systems are presented.