A method and system is provided for laser piercing of thick plate material that allows for rapid transition to a cutting operation that can reliably produce a piercing hole and complete a cutting operation of the intended shape in a short time, while improving the cutting quality of the cutting after switching from the piercing operation. The cutting nozzle has a centrally located laser. The piercing operation applies a laser beam to the cut work while axially supplied pure oxygen gas is applied towards the cutting work. Additionally, a direction controlled nozzle adjacent the main cutting port provides a discharge of high pressure compressed air non-axially relative to the cutting operation to clear excess molten metal and debris from the kerf thereby increasing the efficiency of the piercing and shortening the cycle time.

An additive manufacturing apparatus for metal additive manufactured products supplies material of the metal additive manufactured products to a processing region, performs irradiation with a heat source that melts the supplied material, ejects a shielding gas to the processing region, and measures a temperature at a measurement point in the processing region. When the temperature at the measurement point during processing reaches a temperature set on the basis of an oxidation temperature of the material, a control device performs at least one of control of stopping the output of the heat source, control of reducing the output, or control of reducing the speed of movement or stopping the movement of the heat source moving in the processing region.

A heating device and method for providing temperature control in an additive manufacturing processes. The heating device is positioned circumferentially about a print head and proximate a top layer of a printed object. An area of the top layer of the printed object is heated by directing energy from the heating device to the top layer as material is deposited from the print head onto the printed object. The directed energy applied to the printed object reduces distortion of the printed object caused by temperature gradients and improves the layer-to-layer bonding of the printed object.

An additive manufacturing head includes: a nozzle configured to discharge material powder; a rotary member connected with the nozzle, including a first material powder passage formed in the rotary member to direct the material powder to the nozzle, and configured to rotate to cause the nozzle to move in the circumferential direction about a laser beam emitted toward the workpiece; and a stationary member including a second material powder passage which is formed in the stationary member and into which the material powder is introduced, the stationary member being disposed directly beside the rotary member in the direction of the rotational axis of the rotary member. A third material powder passage communicating with the first material powder passage and the second material powder passage and extending annularly about the rotational axis of the rotary member is formed between the stationary member and the rotary member. Accordingly, an additive manufacturing head that implements a mechanism configured simply to feed material powder to an infinitely revolving nozzle is provided.

A welding device including a cylindrical powder nozzle (201) that supplies a powder gas containing a powder welding material toward a laser beam irradiation position of a base material and a cylindrical shield nozzle (202) that is arranged coaxially so as to cover an outer peripheral surface of the powder nozzle (201) and supplies a shielding gas for isolating the laser beam irradiation position, in which an outer peripheral surface (201b) in the vicinity of a distal end portion (201a) of the powder nozzle (201) has a shape whose outer diameter gradually decreases toward a distal end portion (201a) of the powder nozzle (201) and has an arc-shaped section on a section passing through a center axis (A) of the powder nozzle (201) is provided.

An additive manufacturing apparatus includes: a machining head; a beam nozzle through which a beam emitted from the machining head passes; a material feed unit that feeds a material to a workpiece; a first drive unit that moves a tip portion of the material relative to the workpiece; a second drive unit that moves the beam in a direction included in a reference plane perpendicular to a central axis of the beam nozzle; and a controller that determines, on the basis of a direction of travel, a direction of the movement of the beam, the direction of travel being included in the reference plane, the direction of travel being a direction in which the tip portion travels relative to the workpiece, and controls the first and second drive units such that the beam is movable in a manner different from movement of the tip portion relative to the workpiece.

A laser processing apparatus includes: a laser-beam irradiation device that forms a processing groove in a workpiece by subjecting workpiece to laser processing while scanning a surface of workpiece; a nozzle that injects a gas W in a range of laser-beam irradiation by laser-beam irradiation device; a motor that changes a position of injection of gas W by nozzle; and a controller. Controller controls motor in accordance with a position of irradiation by laser-beam irradiation device, thereby changing the position of injection of gas W by nozzle.

An apparatus for feeding powder particles includes a hopper holding a supply of powder. A voltage supply is in electrical communication with a first electrode and a second electrode. The hopper is configured to drop powder onto the first electrode. The voltage supply is capable of producing an electric potential between the first electrode and second electrode and causing the powder particles landing on the first electrode to develop a surface charge. The second electrode is positioned remotely from the first electrode such that the electric field between the first electrode and the second electrode causes the powder particles that fall onto the first electrode to move off the first electrode and move toward the second electrode. The powder particles moving toward the second electrode may or may not reach the electrode, but in either case drop away from the second electrode due to the force of gravity.

Implementations described herein generally relate to additive manufacturing. More particularly, implementations disclosed herein relate to formulations and processes for forming articles via a three-dimensional printing (or 3D printing) process. In one implementation, a method of additive manufacturing is provided. The method comprises dispensing a first layer of a feed material over a platen. The feed material includes a powder mixture comprising a plurality of particulates comprising a first material and a plurality of particulates comprising a second material different from the first material. The method further comprises directing a laser beam to heat the feed material at locations specified by data stored in a computer readable medium. The laser beam heats the feed material to a temperature sufficient to fuse at least the second material.

A cladding-by-welding device, an erosion shield forming method, and a turbine blade manufacturing method forming an erosion shield having high erosion resistance including: a powder supply head; a laser head; a line generator configured to irradiate a measurement line beam; a imaging device; a movement mechanism configured to move the powder supply head and the laser head with respect to a base body; and at least one controller configured to cause a projection image on the base body of the measurement line beam acquired by the imaging device to overlap a predetermined position of the imaging device, to set a position where the projection image overlaps the predetermined position of the imaging device as a copying position, to control the movement mechanism based on the copying position, and to move the powder supply head and the laser head with respect to the base body.