Investigation of dimensional and geometrical tolerances of laser powder directed energy deposition process

Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition (LP-DED) is a promising Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology that offers the opportunity of repairing and revamping damaged or outdated parts and molds. Notwithstanding, it should be considered that the low surface quality of the produced parts makes post-processing operations necessary in order to meet the industrial requirements, and these operations strongly depend on the accuracy of the produced parts. In this paper, firstly an artifact for the LP-DED process, including classical features with and without curvatures, is proposed. Then, the dimensional accuracy and geometrical tolerances of the features are evaluated, limited to AISI 316L stainless steel. The findings of this work showed that the dimensional and geometrical tolerances of the LP-DED process are comparable with those of sand casting. On the other hand, tolerances are lower compared to Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (LB-PBF) technologies but are similar to those observed in Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion (EB-PBF).