A new manufacturing machine fires two different-coloured lasers—green and infrared—to 3D-print metals that normally reflect light away and refuse to melt. Most commercial 3D printers rely on infrared lasers, which bounce off copper, gold, and silver like mirrors off a sunny window. The green laser absorbs into these materials, allowing engineers to print high-conductivity copper coils, precious-metal antennae, and lightweight structural alloys that currently require wasteful machining or cannot be made at all. The machine switches between lasers automatically, so it can tailor heat input for each layer and even blend different metals into a single component. Because its build chamber is small and fully open, researchers can test expensive powders in tiny batches—grams instead of kilograms—without locked-in proprietary settings. If successful, this system will let UK labs and companies prototype novel parts for satellite heat sinks, medical implants, and 5G communication devices using materials that existing printers cannot handle. The project is primarily an equipment investment to enable future materials discovery, not a direct product development.
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This project aims to empower the UK's research institutions and industry with a state-of-the-art dual laser (green/infrared) laser powder fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) system. This development system can be used to process novel metallic materials, using either laser sources. The green laser will enable AM of low laser absorptivity materials, especially Cu and its alloys, precious metals, as well as some structural materials of poor laser absorptivity in the infrared (IR) range. As switching the laser-source is fully automated, the system can tailor the heat input with the geometry in defect-susceptible materials or build functionally graded materials. The small processing chamber will enable the development of excessively costly materials using limited quantities of powders in a fully open system with unlocked parameters and with a quick material changeover, unlike the majority of the IR-based systems in the UK universities. The presence of both lasers on the same system will permit exploring the utility of the laser source on consolidation, throughput and performance, especially novel materials of unknown laser absorptivity. The interest in AM of novel materials is growing rapidly with the expansion in its applications in the space, energy, healthcare, and communication devices sectors. The system will support projects for both the UK academia and industry, due to its ability to process limited quantities of powders, as well as build medium sized components, making it ideal for both material and product development. It will also support research on in-situ process monitoring, materials development and Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) to simulate the laser-powder interaction and the resulting material properties.
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