New laser - matter interaction conditions in powder bed melting. Experimental and numerical approach – NOCOLOX

The NOCOLOX project aims at:
(1) implementing and evaluating two ways of improvements and stabilization for the laser powder bed fusion technique, directly connected to (a) the kind of laser-matter interaction (modified spatial distribution, pulsed vs continous regime) and (b) to the powder bed properties (detailed in-situ analysis of the powder spreading laser and powder bed properties + pre-sintering before fusion)
(2) testing these potential improvements on instrumented set-ups with complementary features (chamber size, powder spreading mode, kinds of physical diagnostics) in order to provide a realistic and pertinent description of the physical phenomena involved during the laser - powder - fusion zone interaction.
(3) implementing in-operando tomography analysis using x-ray Synchrotron in order to provide a better understanding of physical mechanisms involved during L-PBF (at the powder bed scale, and during L-PBF beads overlap)
This mostly experimental work will be completed by numerical simulations at the metallic melt-pool range, and by the geometrical and microstructural analysis of built materials.