The PBF technologies for metal products are still the only AM technologies capable of processing metal materials, which are of substantial importance for engineering applications. The most important technologies for processing of metal materials, which differ by the source of heating energy, are:
Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) technology, that is also called Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology;
Electron Beam Melting (EBM) technology
PBF technologies for metal materials have following characteristics:
While the powder in the powder bin is capable of supporting the products, the cooling of the product during production process requires support structures that serve as heat conductors from the hot top products layer to the cold baseplate.
High temperature gradients may lead to strong residual stresses in products. For that reason, and for the requirement for higher quality of surfaces, heat treatment, shot-peening, machining, laser shock peening and hot isostatic pressing are post-processing procedures for the metal PBF technologies.