POLARONYX INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 13a

Description

Additive manufacturing (AM), esp- laser AM, becomes a powerful tool to replace conventional methods such as casting and hot spray, due to its cost effectiveness and capability of making complex structure and composition- However, direct metal melting of high temperature materials and fabrication of multi-material parts (such as 9Cr1Mo steel - 12Cr2Si steel bimetallic structures) is still a challenging field, mainly due to limited understanding of composition control, laser melting control, and melted structure formation and phase transition- Based on our patented laser AM technology and the world’s first product of fs fiber laser AM, PolarOnyx proposes, for the first time, a hybrid AM/SM system to overcome these difficulties and meet the requirement of making bimetallic structures- Our AM system will use hybrid powder bend and feeder technique and ultrafast laser technique to control melting temperature and feeding powders with precision- With NDI feedback, its melting temperature can be controlled with pulse repetition rate and energy- The microstructure can be controlled by tuning the pulse width- Its feeding rate can be controlled by mixed powder assisted by fs laser ablation- This system is readily convertible to subtractive manufacturing (SM) to do machining and process micro-structures, without adding extra cost-