Abstract:
Rapid prototyping (RP) or layered manufacturing (LM) technologies have been extensively used to
manufacture prototypes composed mainly of plastics,
polymers, paper, and wax due to the short product
development time and low costs of these technologies.
However, such technologies, with the exception of
selective laser melting and sintering, are not used to
fabricate metallic products because of the resulting poor
life, short cycle, poor surface finish, and low structural
integrity of the fabricated parts. The properties endowed by
these parts do not match those of functional parts.
Therefore, extensive research has been conducted to
develop new additive manufacturing (AM) technologies
by extending existing RP technologies. Several AM
technologies have been developed for the fabrication of
metallic objects. These technologies utilize materials, such
as Ni-, Al-, and Ti-based alloys and stainless steel powders,
to fabricate high-quality functional components. The
present work reviews the type of materials used in laserbased AM processes for the manufacture of metallic
products. The advantages and disadvantages of processes
and different materials are summarized, and future research
directions are discussed in the final section. This review
can help experts select the ideal type of process or
technology for the manufacturing of elements composed of
a given alloy or material (Ni, Ti, Al, Pb, and stainless
steel).
